The Faceless
by Dr. Bross
Summary: Ash Springs is the best mental health facility the Fire Nation has to offer. It has received a lot of new patients since the war ended, but when the Fire Lord arrives it gets the strangest visitors yet. A mob of faceless people tearing the island apart...
1. Chapter 1: Uzin of the Fire Nation

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 1: Uzin of the Fire Nation

Circle time. I hated circle time. About ten of us and Doctor Hwang gathered in the courtyard and sat in a circle. Here he asked us questions and we generally opened ourselves up to all the other residents in Ash Springs… or at least the residents from my wing- but not me. I didn't even want to be here. I never wanted to be here. I was thirsty, that was my big realization. But we had some new faces in the circle and Doctor Hwang likes to do introductions. This must have been my sixth time if I was counting correctly. It looked like some of them were from the Earth Kingdom and some of them could have been from the colonies. We were supposed to listen very carefully and remain thoughtful of the other residents. That's what Doctor Hwang and Doctor Jing always said, but I wasn't listening. I sat with my arms crossed and looked towards the sky and drifted from the rock garden to the number of palm trees planted out in the courtyard. I always let my mind wonder in these sessions. I'd rather be reprimanded and forced to clean out the engine room of a war ship.

"Everyone, I would like to introduce Joo Dee. She's from Ba Sing Se in the Earth Kingdom. I hope everyone gives her a warm welcome," Doctor Hwang said.

I looked over to Joo Dee. She was sitting next to me. She had been at Ash Springs for the last week or so. Even if you didn't know her name, you would know the smile. She never stopped smiling. She smiled all the time every day. She smiled non-stop. She smiled so hard that she frightened some of the residents and for some reason she could reduce the Dai Li guy to an unhinged mess. She smiled so much that some residents started to mimic her and also smile non-stop. I can't tell you how long it took the doctors to put a stop to that. It seemed like she was trying hard to be courteous, and only ended up disturbing people. As for me… I couldn't look at her for any length of time because that smile would haunt me for the rest of my life. My superior officers had nothing on her when it came to intimidation. Usually I concentrated on her hair piece or the robe she wore. Anything so I didn't have to look at that stupid smile. With that smile, she belonged at Ash Springs. She needed help.

"Hello, I'm Joo Dee!" She waved. Her enthusiasm could kill someone.

"Why don't you say a few things about yourself?" Doctor Hwang encouraged.

"Yes well… I'm from the Earth Kingdom. I worked for the Cultural Authority as a guide for Ba Sing Se's esteemed guests. I was sent here by my parents. They say that I could use a long vacation for how hard I worked."

"Everyone needs a break from work. You know Joo Dee, you don't have to smile so much. Sometimes… we don't smile. Our expressions have a rest position. It's very healthy and necessary to everyday life."

Doctor Hwang tried to demonstrate and put a blank look on his face. I couldn't help but laugh. As doctors go he was quite young, but just as formal and incapable of acting normal. He always seemed like he was examining something. The first time I arrived at Ash Springs I thought he was the model for some of the propaganda posters during the war. His black hair, his moustache, it was all so impossibly neat and tidy. But Joo Dee, unsurprisingly, didn't buy his explanation.

"Nonsense. Not smiling would seem discourteous. It's important that visitors and guests always feel welcome- especially the ones that I had the honor of guiding around the city. I was even promoted one time for my hard work!"

"That's true Joo Dee, but you aren't in Ba Sing Se. You're on vacation. You deserve some time to yourself. No one works all the time. I want you to think about that while staying at Ash Springs."

Joo Dee didn't stop smiling but nodded. Doctor Hwang scribbled something down on his scroll and turned to me. I hated when it was my turn. It never got any easier as many times as I did it.

"Uzin, would you mind introducing yourself?"

I was so thirsty. I didn't think my mouth was going to be able to move.

"Why? I've already introduced myself… three times this week actually," I said.

"Yes… but we have some new residents and I would appreciate if you showed the courtesy of introducing yourself again."

I didn't want Joo Dee to know my name; she might try to give me a tour of my own room or the dining hall or something equally worthless. Sometimes, when everyone was allowed to walk around, she would start tour groups. One time she had a crowd of fifty following her around and listening intently. A couple misinformed visitors to the island even took her for a member of the staff.

"No, I'd rather leave."

When I stood up, so did Doctor Hwang. The guards in the courtyard took notice and approached the circle. They could firebend, but so could I. Possibly, I could take down two of the guards. But there were always more outside the courtyard walking the halls. It wasn't so much a matter of skill but a matter of numbers. How well they were trained was a good question… but they probably had more Firebenders here than the Boiling Rock.

"Now Uzin, if you don't calm down I will have no choice but to move you to the secure wing." Doctor Hwang crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at me.

The secure wing? I didn't want to get moved to the secure wing. It was across from the main wing. Outside, you could see some of its guard towers in the distance. It was a metal circular building with metal walls and metal doors. With metal floors and bars and supposedly it was designed so well not even a Fire Lord could burn himself out. I heard they had cool down rooms that made the Boiling Rock seem tame in comparison. No way was I going to be put in there. Hesitantly I sat down and watched as the guards backed off. Doctor Hwang sat down and readied his scroll.

"Now, go right ahead." He gestured to me.

I sighed and went through the motions.

"My name is Uzin. It's my father's name, which he got from his father."

"What generation does that make you?"

"Uzin the third. My father was a part of the Fire Nation Army, retired. I went into the Navy. I enjoyed the travel opportunities."

Like always whenever I mentioned that part about my life, the same resident who always did stood up and gave me a respectful bow. He believes he's in the military even though his spear is a fragile stick and his helmet is a bowl stolen from the dining room. It's nothing compared to my uniform, which the doctors still let me wear for some reason. They never let me have the helmet though.

"What was your last operation during your service, Uzin?"

"The Siege of the North, led by Admiral Zhao."

"How did that go?"

"Not well."

Doctor Hwang narrowed his eyes.

"Now Uzin, this is one of your problems. You never give a straight answer. You always hide behind sarcasm or poor generalizations. I want you to be honest. It is important that you share the experiences you had during that time. Please, tell us. We're all listening."

I looked around the circle. None of these people cared. They were all crazy. One of them wore clay masks and called himself the Face Stealer. One had an unusual compulsion to paint random things purple. One was from the Dai Li, an Earthbender who probably could have left whenever he wanted to but didn't because he had nightmares about little blind girls and didn't get any sleep. Next to me was a woman who never stopped smiling who could make him cry. Across the circle was a man who thought he was a soldier. I could go on, and this didn't even cover the violent cases locked up in the secure wing. All of them had a fire that had burnt out a long time ago. Ash Springs was nothing but a place to stick crazy people. Everyone who was a waste. And I was here for some reason. Thirsty. But if Doctor Hwang wants me to explain, then I'll explain.

"It was Admiral Zhao's plan to wipe the Northern Water Tribe off the face of the map. It involved the spirits. The moon disappeared from the sky and then the ocean rose up and decided to destroy everything. The Avatar was probably involved but it was a big watery monster that couldn't be stopped. It was huge. Men were smothered in ocean water, frozen solid, dragged down the bottom of the sea, stranded in restless freezing waves. Great ships were flipped over like turtle ducks. Tossed backwards like they were thrown from a catapult. The ship I managed to reach in the retreat was cut in two by water. And now, whenever I see wa-"

I stopped. My throat closed up and my body began to shake. I sat down, not even realizing that I had stood up in the first place. I must have been waving my hands all over. Whenever I started talking about the North Pole I never could keep track of myself. Quickly I shoved my hands under my arms and met a crowd of wide eyed nutcases staring back at me. Doctor Hwang looked like he was scribbling down a novel on his scroll.

"And now whenever what? Uzin?" Doctor Hwang asked gently.

"No... Nothing."

"You were going to say something. Something about water."

"No. It's not about water. It was… Walrus Panthers. I hate them."

"It's definitely about water. You've mentioned it before."

"I was sent here because of my father's wishes. He thinks because the war is over and all the changes going on at the capital I have unresolved stress or something ridiculous like that. Like I can't handle change! I was in the navy!"

"No, he sent you here because when you get near any amount of water, no matter how small, you have a complete breakdown. He's worried about you. You won't drink anything."

"Shut up about the stupid water! Shut up!"

The guards moved back in on my side. Everything was so silent now. The Joo Dee lady was still smiling. I had my hands in my hair and sweating for some reason. I was still thirsty.

"Are you going to be all right Uzin?" Doctor Hwang asked after a time.

"I'm tired. Am I done?"

"Yes, that's alright. We'll talk more during the private sessions."

An arm shot up into the air.

"The Face Stealer wants to go next!"

We all looked over to the man wearing the clay masks. I hated when he spoke in these group sessions. Every time, it involved talking in the third person, obsessing about faces and how he was going to take them. He was probably the most unsettling resident in my wing. But before the doctor could say anything a shadow rolled over the courtyard. Everyone looked up to see an airship overhead. It was amazing. I had heard about airships but I had never seen one before. Banners hung from the sides as it passed by. I thought I recognized the insignia but it was too quick for me to be sure. Doctor Jing ran out into the courtyard. She was an older doctor who wore glasses and had the fanciest top knot I had ever seen. Even the royal family would have been jealous. I liked to joke that her topknot got her exiled to Ash Springs where she's forced to take care of crazy people.

"Doctor, did you just see that?" Doctor Jing asked quickly.

"What was it? We aren't expecting any new patients today. At least not by airship."

"No! That airship had the markings of the Fire Lord!"

"What?" Doctor Hwang dropped his scroll and brush. "The Fire Lord? No… we aren't… it can't be him! Why would he come here?"

"It's probably about his sister! You better find the other doctors and nurses. We don't have much time."

One of the guards entered the courtyard in a panic; you'd think we were being invaded. The excitement spread to the circle easily. Everyone was getting restless.

"The airship just landed at the south dock! The Royal Guard is stepping out! Whatever we're going to do, we better do it quick!"

Doctor Hwang tried to eat his fingers and before he could chew through them he quickly regained his composure and turned to the circle.

"Okay, everyone, may I have your attention. I'm sorry to say we have to end our circle session early. If everyone could move to the recreation room, we'll have to resume this later."

"The Face Stealer didn't get to speak!"

Easily the best thing that happened all day.

"Please, everyone, move to the recreation room."

Doctor Hwang and Doctor Jing left along with two of the guards. The rest of us were corralled inside. The recreation room wasn't far from the courtyard. It was just a large room with Pai Sho tables and plenty of seats with large windows over looking the garden. I didn't want to go to the recreation room. I wanted to watch the doctors and nurses and attendants flounder in the face of the arrival of the Fire Lord. It was like anytime Admiral Zhao came on board the ship I served on. It wasn't so much of an inspection but an excuse to hand out demotions or make an example of someone. In not even a week I realized that only Zhao could make Zhao happy. But with a Fire Lord… I mean the new Fire Lord. Fire Lord Zuko. I never saw him but other survivors said that he was there at the North Pole. When Ozai was still Fire Lord, he was even blamed as one of the reasons the whole invasion failed. I had to know if it was true. Now the only matter was finding a situation where I could get close enough… No one approaches the Fire Lord randomly, especially if you're a resident at Ash Springs…

- Next Chapter: Fire Lord Zuko


	2. Chapter 2: Fire Lord Zuko

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 2: Fire Lord Zuko

In the recreation room the attendants tried hard to keep everyone busy, desperately trying to hide the confusion caused by the Fire Lord's visit. I was asked to play Pai Sho. I wouldn't usually mind, but they set me up with Bowyer. After months of being at Ash Springs I couldn't find a single redeeming quality with Bowyer. I sat down at the table, looked at his face and just shook my head. He looked normal enough, clean shaven, attentive eyes with a sickening grin plastered across his face most of the time. The only thing he didn't have down was top knots. His was always lopsided and no one ever tried to convince him to change it otherwise. Made worse considering he used to be in the military too, a Firebender, part of the Earth Kingdom Occupation Forces. But he wasn't in it for duty or honor or anything you'd expect of a loyal citizen of the Fire Nation. A part of him just loved to see fire consume things. I've seen Firebenders like him before. He didn't need help, he just didn't care. No one was going to make him care, certainly not Doctor Hwang or anyone on this island.

"How's your vacation Bowyer?" I asked bitterly.

"It's going great. You know, when they convicted me of dishonorable conduct, it was either this or the Boiling Rock. I decided Ash Springs was better. This place… it's like a resort." Bowyer smiled.

Normally, this is the part where someone asks him how he managed that. Or asked him why he was convicted of misconduct. But we had a routine down between the two of us. I tried not to talk to him for any length of time, and he'd do everything in his power to get me to talk. I tried to be silent, but his tongue was like no other. Bowyer could probably talk the Fire Lord out of his crown. He never missed a moment when he could get me angry.

"I don't see why the commander made such a big deal about my Firebending. You burn a village or farm or crops here or there… its war. What do they expect?"

"There's a difference between war and burning things at random," I said.

"What do you know about me, Uzin? You know my name. You know my reputation. You know stories. You don't know me."

"I know you aren't crazy. You're just using this as a tropical getaway. It's insulting."

"But you aren't crazy either, right Uzin? That's what you're always saying. I hear your sessions. Nothing wrong with you, by the way…" Bowyer reached under the Pai Sho table. "Care for a drink?"

Bowyer pulled out a glass of water that was practically overflowing! My natural reaction was to jump from my chair and smash it out of his hand. It soared across the recreation room and crashed up against the wall, shattering into pieces. I didn't look away until I watched every last drop seep into the floor and disappear. Even after that I couldn't get my body to calm down; I felt the sweat start to run down my forehead. I tried to decide if I should leap across the table and choke Bowyer to death. Either that or challenge him to an Agni Kai… but Doctor Hwang didn't allow an Agni Kai on the island and I wasn't sure I could beat Bowyer anyway. He was the best cheater I ever met. I couldn't say anything. My mouth was tangled in the panic. I had so many thoughts wrapped up in my mind. He shook his head and scoffed.

"I spent all day making that. You know that's not easy, making glass. It's not easy to make something so fragile."

"You should stick with tea cups!" I managed to say.

He sighed.

"Why do we always fight Uzin? Really. You burned enemies of the Fire Nation; I burned enemies of the Fire Nation. We should be friends. We're the only real soldiers around here anyway. You think any of these guards ever had to fight an Earthbending platoon and dodge rocks the size of the royal palace? Or, or fight Waterbenders in their element? We're the only ones who could possibly have real problems. Everyone else here… they don't know what traumatic is. They lose a cabbage stand and their whole world is ruined. Please."

"And what's your problem Bowyer? You should be locked in the secure wing!"

"But Doctor Hwang is convinced I'm no threat. My Firebending is under control and I'm making progress with the issues I have with… my parent's death."

"What?"

"Killed by a rockslide." He nodded several times.

"I can't believe this."

"Oh no, it's quite serious. It happened when I was young and impressionable. The horrible memories made me predisposed to attack Earthbenders at ridiculous levels, which led me to disobeying orders." He reasoned with words I wasn't even sure he used in the right way.

"With you it's something different every week," I said pointing at him.

"And you with you, Uzin. It's the same thing every week. Water. Water, water everywhere and always out for your neck. It's kind of boring. You think a raindrop will drown you. I can't even imagine how you would react if you met a Waterbender-"

"You… you didn't see what I saw." I stuttered, interrupting him.

"Yes, yes, the spirits. Very vague. The ocean attacking Admiral Zhao's fleet. One of the biggest losses in Fire Nation Naval history. You know, they had a play about it. One of the guards said they had someone in a delightful costume stomping on little models of Fire Navy ships. People clapped. But the play was wrong about Ozai defeating the Avatar so I suppose it could be wrong about a lot of things."

I was so frustrated I wanted to break the Pai Sho table over his head. I wanted Bowyer to see but he never could and attacking him wasn't going to get that point across. He didn't know anything about the Siege of the North. No one at Ash Springs did. They could never know. It made me so angry that I was ready to attack Bowyer the next time he opened his mouth. Instead he kept it shut as something caught his attention behind me. I turned to see the Fire Lord in the recreation room along with Doctor Hwang and Doctor Jing! He had just entered; the doctors seemed to be leading him on a tour. Among them were a number of royal guards in their red uniforms and distinct helmets. It was the first time I had ever seen a Fire Lord in person. He was just as young as the stories and pictures said he was. Even the scar over his left eye was true. I had heard so many things about that scar like it was the entire side of his face or on the right side… It didn't matter. He was right there, across the room. Listening to the doctors rattle on about Ash Springs with his arms folded behind his back. That was it. I had to ask him about the North Pole. Was he actually there? Or were they just more stories? If he was… surely Bowyer couldn't argue with the word of the Fire Lord. At least he wouldn't if he was smart.

"They say he was there," I said to Bowyer.

"What? The Fire Lord? Where?"

"The North Pole."

"Just who is 'they' anyway Uzin?"

"I'm going to ask him."

"Ask him? Why would he talk to you? He's the Fire Lord. You're just a crazy soldier wasting away at Ash Springs. You were trying to wipe out the Northern Water Tribe… who is apparently our friends now. How would you explain yourself?"

"I was following orders," I said instantly.

"Ha!" Bowyer laughed. "Orders! The classic argument."

"I'm going to ask him," I said again with more emphasis.

"Good luck. If the Royal Guard lets you within earshot I'll be very surprised."

I got up from the Pai Sho table and carefully made my way across the room. Doctor Hwang and Doctor Jing were too occupied with their speech to notice me. Everyone else in the room seemed too surprised at seeing the Fire Lord to notice me. The only ones who did were the royal guard. But before I got that far, a voice called out.

"Wow the pool room is big enough for Appa to fit in."

The Fire Lord and the two doctors turned as someone else entered the room. I saw arrow tattoos, and orange robes. I saw a bright smile and someone holding a staff. It was the Avatar. The Avatar was here at Ash Springs. I came to a dead stop. My body locked up and a blue haze filled the room. Everything was blue. I could see them turn towards me and then disappear. All the sound was being distorted and muted. They were gone. In their places was the ocean, as I suddenly realized I was underwater. Ash Springs had disappeared… melted away. Only water remained. Arctic ocean water. I wanted to scream but only bubbles came out. I had to swim as hard as I could to get to the surface and take a deep breath. But waiting for me was a glowing blue swell in the ocean. It looked like a fish. It was looking at me, raising its arms into the sky.

"No… no please! I'm sorry!" I yelled.

The entire ocean crashed down on me sending me flying back under the waves and falling straight to the bottom like I had a sinking ship tied to me. Struggling didn't do any good. I opened my eyes and saw endless blue in all directions and it was getting dark. As the light faded above me I thought I saw Admiral Zhao passing by. I made the mistake of looking at him, to see his arms crossed as he silently accepted his fate. It seemed horrible that he wasn't the least bit upset about being dragged down to oblivion. I wanted to yell at him, but I couldn't make a sound under the waves. I shut my eyes; my breath was running out and finally hit something hard. It felt like the bottom…

- Next chapter: Liu of the Dai Li


	3. Chapter 3: Liu of the Dai Li

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 3: Liu of the Dai Li

The world came to a stop. I felt motionless and when I breathed I was relieved to feel air rush into my lungs. Slowly I opened my eyes to see that I was in my room at Ash Springs. The picture of my family was still on the table next to my bed, so was the model ship I made in the arts room last week and my helmet still sat in the corner. I tried to sit up and my whole body felt sluggish. Somehow I managed and looked to the window to see what time it was. The sky was orange; the sun must have been setting. I almost got out of bed when Doctor Hwang arrived. He took a seat and moved it close to my bed before sitting down.

"Hello Uzin. You're awake. How do you feel?"

"Groggy." I tried to lift my arms unsuccessfully. "What happened?"

"You had an episode in the recreation room and fainted. We moved you here to rest. I've been checking up on you for the past few hours. Your dreams aren't getting any better I take it."

Everything came back to me. I fainted in front of the Fire Lord! In front of Bowyer, in front of everyone! But it was the Avatar. The Avatar was here at Ash Springs. Why was he here? What could possibly cause the Avatar to come to a place like this? Maybe the Fire Lord brought him… or maybe the Avatar brought the Fire Lord. It didn't make any sense.

"The Avatar… what is the Avatar doing here?" I asked, clenching my teeth.

"I'm not privileged to the business of the Avatar. All I know is that he is the guest of the Fire Lord and we are honored to have both of them here. They will be staying over the course of a number of days."

"The Fire Lord," I groaned. "I just wanted to talk to him."

Doctor Hwang noted something on his scrolls and looked back to me with a stern expression.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Uzin. I won't lie to you. We're under a lot of pressure. This is an unannounced visit from the Fire Lord. I don't know if you're aware of the history of Ash Springs. But a Fire Lord hasn't visited here for hundreds and hundreds of years. It's unprecedented."

"But Doctor Hwang… surely you've heard the rumors. They said he was actually at the North Pole. When Ozai was Fire Lord, he was one of the reasons for the failure of the whole invasion. You're telling me I can't talk to him about it?"

"Absolutely not." Doctor Hwang remained adamant.

"But why?" I shouted.

"My primary reason is your recovery. Your reaction around the Avatar is similar to your reaction around water only much, much worse. I'm concerned for your health."

"I don't want to talk to the Avatar. I want to talk to the Fire Lord!"

"Whatever business they have here it involves both of them. I am in no position to ask the Avatar, the guest of the Fire Lord, to go away for any amount of time just so one of my patients can have a chat unless he requests it."

"Requests it? Fire Lord Zuko doesn't even know I exist!"

"That's why I am here for you Uzin. I am your doctor. I will help you."

I couldn't believe it. Doctor Hwang sat there with his scroll and his stupid expression and told me "no" point blank to my face. How could he not understand that the Fire Lord could be the only person at Ash Springs that saw what I saw? And as impossible as it sounded, he was here, probably closer than he'll ever be. There was no way I'd ever have a chance like this again. Why couldn't he understand that?

"You're just afraid of him!" I said, pointing a finger at him.

Doctor Hwang recoiled and seemed stung for a short time.

"Uzin, please calm down. I'm not afraid… I'm nervous. We don't know anything about Fire Lord Zuko. If he is anything like his father, through no fault of my own I might never be able to practice medicine in the Fire Nation ever again. We have to tread carefully."

"I want to talk to the Fire Lord." I declared again.

"No. If you continue to argue about this-"

"You weren't at the North Pole, Doctor Hwang!"

"Uzin, I am serious-"

"Why won't you help me!?"

"Uzin! If you do not calm down I will have no choice but to take you to the cool down room!"

My voice cut out as soon as he mentioned the cool down room. Usually such things were reserved to keep Firebenders pacified. The Boiling Rock had impressive versions of these rooms where they would throw rowdy prisoners in and then forget. You'd almost risk freezing to death… but you never would. You'd just be cold and miserable and your Firebending would amount to nothing. I wouldn't last two seconds in the cool down room. They were cold, so cold. Cold like the North Pole. All I could do faced with a threat like that was to look away.

"I know you feel strongly about this, but I don't believe the Fire Lord would have anything of value to say about your condition," Doctor Hwang tried to assure me. "For the meantime, just rest."

Doctor Hwang wrote down a few more things on his scrolls and left, closing the door on the way out. Quietly I got out of bed and put my ear up against the door.

"How is Uzin doing?" It sounded like Doctor Jing.

"Fine… he's upset. He has a strong desire to speak to the Fire Lord about the time during his banishment."

Doctor Jing muttered something but I couldn't make it out.

"Really, the last thing I want to do is bring something like that up. We need to tell the guards to be very careful around interactions between the patients and the Fire Lord. We can't afford to make any mistakes."

Their voices faded as they walked away. My one chance to talk to the Fire Lord was ruined by the Avatar in the recreation room. Now Doctor Hwang and all the guards would be watching me, doing everything they could to keep me away from him like I was some assassin. I was going to have to work for this. Not that it mattered, I already had an idea. First I would have to know everything I could about the arrangements of the Fire Lord and the Avatar. That wouldn't be hard for one reason, the Dai Li Agent, Liu. I couldn't know for sure, but I think that he came to Ash Springs a little after the Day of Black Sun. It could have been a few weeks or a month… I couldn't really keep track of time in here. The point is that if someone knew everything going on at Ash Springs, it would be him. Most likely it was due to his training, a force of habit, or his issues but for some reason he could tell you what was the dinner schedule was two weeks in advance.

The rumors were that he had snapped while serving under Princess Azula either due to stress, physical exhaustion or maybe both. Liu hardly ever slept due to nightmares about a small blind girl that terrorized him and on top of that he had a compulsion to horde information. You could watch him dropping in on meaningless conversations and keeping track of every word like it was his next big mission. He would find perfectly legitimate excuses to hang around doctors and guards and memorize everything that was said. During arts and crafts he would write codes or do sketches of people he's never seen face to face. Several times during group sessions Doctor Hwang would catch him holding other resident's property that he had managed to steal after sneaking into their rooms and leaving without anyone noticing. Realistically, Liu could have escaped Ash Springs at any time. No one was going to catch him, much less stop him considering this place wasn't built to hold Earthbenders. But for some reason he stuck around, going to the sessions, listening closely and looking in desperate need of a good night's sleep.

The next morning I sat across from him during breakfast in the dining hall. Even without his uniform you could pick him out because of his braid, apparently common in Ba Sing Se. He was playing with his food rather than eating it, using a small stone to move it around in various patterns. Can't say I blamed him, breakfast was usually the worst meal of the day. I watched him make a pattern of some sort of building before speaking up.

"It's Liu right?" I said. "I would introduce myself but you probably know all about me."

"Yeah… you're Uzin. You served on a Fire Navy Ship manning the trebuchets."

"You seem to have a way with knowing things."

Liu stopped Earthbending and rubbed his forehead. I could see the dark rings under his eyes.

"And you want to talk to the Fire Lord." Liu told me.

He was good.

"Why do you do that? Find out things about everyone?" I asked.

"Because… if I didn't know… I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Besides, you've never talked to me before. You've never even sat at my table. Suddenly the Fire Lord is here and… there you are."

"Really? I'm sure I've said something to you before…"

"No."

"Wave?"

"You haven't. Listen… its not important. What do you want to know?"

"It's about the Fire Lord and the Avatar. What are they doing here? Where is he staying? Has anyone said anything?"

Liu looked around at the table, almost as if making a mental note of where everyone was sitting that morning. I almost started looking myself but I kept my focus on his rock gloves. I'm still trying to figure out on what grounds the doctors let him keep that, never mind that they could be used to kill or snatch someone from the other side of the room. I'm sure it came down to some weak reason like comfort levels and that Liu wouldn't feel complete without them. I've heard the same excuse used for the man who wears clay masks. Maybe it was a far simpler reason… because they just couldn't stop him.

"From what I've heard with the guards and the doctors talking… the Fire Lord is making a number of unannounced visits. Probably just to see if the laws he's declaring are actually being followed," he said.

"I heard something during our last group sessions. Something about his sister?"

"Princess Azula in the secure wing." Liu shivered up and down. "I… I… don't know anything about that."

It was the worst lie I ever heard Liu say. Everyone in the Fire Nation knew about Princess Azula. I heard about her when I served in the navy, when I was discharged, and even when I spent the final weeks of the war here at Ash Springs. The Dai Li would know because she talked them into betraying the Earth Kingdom. He knew.

"What? Who are you kidding Liu? You keep track of Doctor Zhu's Pai Sho games. He plays those at his office in the secure wing."

"I don't want to talk about Princess Azula," Liu stuttered.

"Is that why the Avatar is here?"

Liu looked sick. If he wasn't wearing his hat and shielding his eyes every time I pressed him on a question he didn't like… I'm pretty sure he was sweating boulders.

"The Avatar… is here because the Fire Lord wants him to be here. Why… I don't know yet."

"Okay, fine. Where is the Fire Lord staying?"

"The visitor wing. It's the mansion they turned into a guest house. He's on the ground floor, facing the ocean."

The visitor wing was along the beach, near the docks and located between the secure wing and the main wing of Ash Springs. Sometimes I could see it out the windows when I walked around the perimeter. Mansion was a bit of a misnomer. It wasn't that big. It probably had enough room for ten people or so. With the Fire Lord he probably took up the whole house with his servants and the Royal Guard or whoever else was with him. Like the Avatar…

"Is the Avatar staying there too?"

Liu nodded. I got a bad feeling in my stomach.

"Anything else you want to know?" Liu asked after a silence.

"No, that's all. Is there anything you want from me?"

"Just tell me what you're planning to do."

I didn't know if I wanted to tell Liu anything. Then again, he'd probably find out anyway and if I didn't tell him he'd probably never share information with me again. I think he liked when he had the opportunity to unload what he had learned. Reporting was probably the best part. It was the only reason I could think of why he would stay here, so someone would listen to him. I felt like, with his skills, the only thing he had outside Ash Springs was secrets and lies. How often did he ever have the chance to be honest?

"I'm going to sneak out and talk to him," I said. "It has to do with the Invasion of the North. If he was there… if he saw anything… There are a lot of things I'm confused about. I have to know."

Liu started to Earthbend his food again. It seemed our conversation was over, but before I could get up to leave he said one more thing.

"The Royal Guard likes to patrol the outside in pairs. I would be careful at night, one stands on the dock behind some carefully placed packing crates. Try sneaking around the east wall."

"Thanks, Liu."

I had a lot of things going against me. The night time guards, the Royal Guard, anyone else I might run into. But I had to do it. Fire Lord Zuko had to have been at the North Pole. He would know everything. I just had to talk to him. But first, I had to get to him in the first place without getting found out. If I was discovered, Doctor Hwang would make sure I'd never get another chance like this ever again…

Next Chapter: Unwelcome Visitors


	4. Chapter 4: Unwelcome Visitors

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 4: Unwelcome Visitors

Getting out of my room isn't any serious task considering the main wing of Ash Springs is a lot like an inn with guards and crazy guests who never leave. It wasn't unheard of for residents to go on a midnight walk since many didn't sleep. The guards working the night shift were pretty good about keeping an eye out for anyone who was out after hours and acting suspicious, but it didn't take a Dai Li Agent to outwit them. The floor made more noise than a komodo rhino. It was easy to time movements to avoid guards, and the windows weren't locked. So as soon as it was quiet outside my room I went to the hallway, found the first open window and leapt outside. The grounds were kept semi maintained. Only pathways got the gardening treatment, so as long as I stayed clear I could hide myself easily enough among the plants. Still, I had never been outside at night. Before I never had a reason, and I was one of the few lucky ones who could get sleep and not stay up for days on end. It was amazingly dark, even with the light from the windows of Ash Springs. I couldn't feel any wind and there was a chorus of nocturnal creatures off in the distance making the most noise possible. I crept along, pushing through bushes and climbing a palm tree every now and then to get my bearings.

The light coming from the windows both wings burned bright in the pitch black. Where the Fire Lord was staying seemed closer to the ocean than I thought, and in the night I could hear the waves rolling in and out. When I slid back down the tree to continue on, I had a chill down my back. The ocean… all that sound it was making. It might as well have been a wild animal hunting me out here. It only got louder the closer I got to the visitors wing… but I had to speak to the Fire Lord. Nothing else really mattered as long as I could stay away form the water. They could banish me or whatever else the punishment for approaching the Fire Lord announced was. When I got there I hid along the edge of the path.

I could see the Royal Guard hanging around. They had two men at the entrance, unmoving. Two more made regular patrols. I remember Liu telling me about the one positioned on the dock… but I couldn't see it in the darkness. I tried not to look past the visitor wing at the formless blob that was the ocean. I started to concentrate on how I was going to get in without getting caught. Maybe I could steal a uniform? Then I quickly remembered that I hadn't seen combat or used firebending in battle for months and months. If I tried to go up against a Royal Guard… it wasn't going to be much of a struggle. Not that I wanted to fight them anyway. But there was no telling just how many were on patrol with only one way to find out. To go for it. I darted across the path and made my way around the side facing away from the dock. I waited for the Royal Guards to head around towards the back of the visitor wing and slowly followed after them.

With the ocean waves, and all the noise from the spider crickets I didn't have to try as hard to keep quiet. But I couldn't relax between the risk of getting caught and the ocean just a few feet away from me. And when I got to the beach line I really had something to worry about. It would only take the wrong set of footprints in the sand and the Royal Guard would know someone was creeping around. But I kept finding myself thinking about was the waves somewhere in the darkness. I was near panic. I started to walk in the footprints left by the guards on patrol until I could press myself up against the outside wall. I had to find a window to climb in quick. The first one I peeked through was a hallway with more Royal Guards standing at the ready. I moved to the next window hearing the wood squeaking under my weight. From this one I could see a large bedroom with someone sleeping soundly. I could only hope it was the Fire Lord and climbed through, making a dull thud as I planted a clumsy landing inside. I didn't move for the longest time. No one knocked on the door and tried to come in, and whoever was in the bed didn't stir at all. Then, I noticed the closet open, and the number of robes that could only belong to the Fire Lord inside. I had the right room after all!

Carefully I stood up, trying to decide what to say. Nothing I imagined in my planning had to do with the Fire Lord being sound asleep in bed. I couldn't just… wake him up out of nowhere. I just stood by the window like an idiot until I managed to find the courage to approach the side of the bed and swallowed hard.

"Uh… Fire Lord Zuko…" I whispered.

I swallowed a few more times to recover my voice and tried again.

"Fire Lord Zuko…"

I don't know why, but I reached for his shoulder and tried to shake him lightly. Soon as I touched him he sprung up.

"Fire Lord isn't here!"

I stumbled backwards and almost crashed into a nearby dresser. What did he say? The moment my mind caught up with my senses and I realized it wasn't Fire Lord Zuko in the bed. It was the resident who wore the clay masks and called himself the Face Stealer! The stupid mask he was wearing looked like a festival mask. He was in the Fire Lord's bed! With his hands in the air like it was a big surprise and howled with a squealing laugh. I stood stunned, practically scared to death. But when I realized it was him I recovered and became angrier than I cared to describe.

"What… what are you doing here? What are you doing in the Fire Lord's bed? How did you get here!?"

"The Face Stealer can go anywhere! The Face Stealer crawls, and crawls and crawls with his many feet!"

"You… you crazy… get out of his bed!" I started to yell and shake my fist at him.

The man calling himself the Face Stealer didn't get out of the bed. Instead he dove underneath the covers and started to crawl around under the sheets making that annoying laughing sound. He probably felt like he was tunneling through the earth or acting like the sneakiest man alive. I had seen children act this way, but I was so angry I couldn't laugh or think up a snide comment appropriate enough. I just yelled at him.

"You idiot! You're going to get me caught!"

"You can't hide from the Face Stealer!"

"Shut up! You've… you've ruined everything! The Fire Lord… Where…"

Suddenly I couldn't put together full sentences. I looked around the room again just incase Fire Lord Zuko was standing out in the open and I just missed him for some dumb reason. But no one else was in the room; it was just me and the crazy Face Stealer man with his stupid clay mask.

"Get out of the bed!" I was so angry at him.

I grabbed the sheets and tore them away. Then I grabbed the Face Stealer Man by his messy robes and tossed him to the floor. His mask stuck on somehow. I pulled him to his feet and began to shake him wildly.

"Where is the Fire Lord?'

"Not here!" The Face Stealer man answered gleefully.

"How did you get past the Royal Guard?"

"The Face Stealer wonders the same thing about you!"

I dropped him to the floor. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't fair. Where was the Fire Lord? Why was this crazy nutcase here instead? He didn't have the answers I wanted. What was I going to do now? As soon as one of the Royal Guards came in to check on the noise, and Doctor Hwang heard about this… I'd never have another chance like this ever again! I'd be locked up, Fire Lord Zuko would leave, and I would have nothing! Why?

"I didn't want to talk to you…" I thought aloud, frustrated to tears.

"That's okay, the Face Stealer has many to talk with outside!"

Nothing he said made any sense, but it didn't matter. I had to get back to my room. I was just about to leave out the window when I heard yelling. The Royal Guard outside suddenly started to shout and next followed the sounds of Firebending.

"Stay back! This area is off limits! I said stay back!"

"Watch out! They're everywhere!"

The visitor wing was suddenly alive with activity from upstairs and also the hallway outside the bedroom. Without thinking I exited into entrance hall, totally forgetting about the Face Stealer man and his crazy ramblings. Even then, from the windows I could see the light and fire flying freely. It sounded like a full scale battle was starting up outside. At the front entrance, I saw the Royal Guards creating barriers of fire. I didn't know why until I got to a window close to the front and looked out to see a mob running around numbering in the hundreds. The six or so guards outside quickly retreated into the visitor wing and shut the door. Soon as they noticed me I had two Royal Guards ready to burn me alive.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" One guard demanded.

"What's going on?"

"Sir, it's… one of the lunatics!"

"Who cares! He's not one of them! At least he has a face!"

I tried to explain, when someone came crashing through one of the windows and landed on the floor. When whoever it was got up and I looked on in amazement. The person had no face. Just a blank slate where their eyes, mouth, and nose should be- they didn't even have any ears! One of the Royal Guards attacked and blasted the faceless person back outside as quickly as they came in. But the mob was closing in on us. They began to pound on the door. I helped move a statue of a lion turtle that must have weighed a ton in front of the door. That was blocked, but there were too many windows to cover with what we had in the entrance hall.

"That man was faceless!" I cried out.

"They're ALL faceless!" A royal guard yelled at me.

Soon as I looked to the windows I could see more of them clawing their way in. All of them were faceless. The only thing you could use to tell any one of them apart was their clothes, which wasn't much better because it seemed like someone from every nation was out there. A faceless mob from all over the world.

"Why are they attacking us?"

"I don't know. They just ran out of the woods! We told them to get back… but they just kept coming!"

"Now they're coming through the windows!" Another guard pointed.

"Everyone fall back!"

We retreated, leaving fire blasts in our wake. Suddenly I knew what they were going to do. The Royal Guards were going to lure the mob into a burning building. By the time we reached the hallway, a curtain of fire was behind us. But it didn't do us any good. Amazingly, a couple members of the mob charged right through the fire regardless of how hot it was or how badly it could scar them. This time I attacked, giving one a blast of fire to face… the featureless face. I think it was only the force that knocked him back and soon we were hiding out in the Fire Lord's room. Another door slammed shut, and we had a few moments to panic in a group. The Face Stealer Man… I mean the man who wore the clay masks was nowhere to be found. If he was smart he was already long gone.

"Where's the Fire Lord?" I asked, remembering how I ended up here in the first place.

"The Fire Lord? He's not here, luckily enough. He took a late night trip to the secure wing with the Avatar."

The secure wing? Why would he go there? Is that why he wasn't in his bedroom?

"The Fire Lord could still be in danger, sir. For all we know those faceless things are all over the island!"

I couldn't imagine more of them. The whole situation was too much to be real. It reminded me of the North Pole. The only thing that could even fit in the same category of the madness going on now… I shook my head and ran my hands through my hair. It couldn't be… surely the spirits weren't at Ash Springs? How could they? Then I realized, the Avatar. The Avatar is here. It had to be his fault. Where ever he went, bad things followed. I was caught in another storm of destruction brought on by him again! Now I was stuck in the burning building with an army of faceless people running around outside with nowhere to go!

"What are we going to do now, sir?" One of the guards asked.

"Make an exit! Then cut our way through them!"

The Royal Guards synchronized their attacks and blew out the whole wall with a burst of fire. I looked to see the surrounding area illuminated by the now burning visitor wing. Anyone could see the beach clearly… and the ocean… the vast ocean sprawling out endlessly… just waiting.

"Let's go! Everyone move!"

I couldn't move. My eyes were locked on the water. All that water… My legs felt more like wobbly blasting jelly. I just stood there and felt my body begin to shake violently.

"Hey! Let's go!" A guard pulled on my arm.

"Forget him! Our duty is to the Fire Lord!"

The Royal Guards charged off onto the beach to make their escape. Soon as they set foot on the sand the faceless people sprung out of nowhere leaping at them and tackling them to the ground. They fought back with every ounce of their strength. One soldier had his helmet knocked off, and immediately after that the crowd grabbed him, lifted him into the air and ran off into the night. Just like that. The faceless people were picking them off and carrying them away as they screamed and shot fire in protest. I stood and watched. Only three guards or so managed to fight their way to the tree line. A thundering crack echoed behind me as a part of the roof came crashing down at my heels. The surprise launched me forward and I hit the beach face down. I felt water touch me. And in that moment I felt a burst of urgency like I only felt once before. I leapt up, turned away from the ocean and charged forward into the crowd of faceless people screaming my head off. Anyone who got too close I shot wild bursts of fire at. I jumped over flailing hands and outran the few that could manage running without tripping over things or slamming into palm trees. Somehow, I reached the path, clear of the mob and heard the visitor wing collapse into a fiery mess. I didn't look back.

The Royal Guards said the Fire Lord was at the secure wing. If I wanted to find him in this mess I was going to have to get there. A place I had avoided with all of my power the minute I arrived at Ash Springs… But considering the faceless strangers out here… it was probably the safest place on the island with all that metal…

Next Chapter: The Fire Lord's Sister


	5. Chapter 5: The Fire Lord's Sister

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 5: The Fire Lord's Sister

I was surprised to make it to the outer wall of the secure wing. While I sprinted through the thick of the palm trees I had too many close calls with the faceless mob. They were everywhere, in groups no smaller than ten. All of them wore different outfits. I thought I saw one wearing water tribe clothes. Another group looked like they were from the Fire Nation. Some wore clothes that made them look like they had been thrown down the side of a mountain and forgot to brush the dirt off. Many clothes I couldn't even recognize. But every single one of them had no face or defining characteristics and none of them made any noise. Without a mouth that would make sense… but I kept expecting to hear screams or pitiful whining or something fitting of their horrible appearance. I didn't know how to explain it. Where did they come from? What did they want? How did so many get on the island. And then I remembered what I had realized in the visitor wing. The Avatar was here… and so were the spirits. Maybe all of the faceless people were spirits trying to tear the whole island apart. Just like what happened at the North Pole. I couldn't come up with any other explanation.

Fortunately the outer wall gave me something new to worry about before my mind could spend anymore time fearing the worse. I had to get past the high steel walls. Airbenders could vault it easily, and Earthbenders could tunnel underneath, but Firebenders had no hope. The flat walls had nothing to climb or grab onto. Palm trees had been cut down so there was no risk of someone climbing them then jumping the wall. My only option was the front gate and the hope that I could convince the guards to let me in. Of course, when I actually found the front gate… it was wide open without a single guard in sight. No sign of struggle or damage was on the door… it was just hanging open. This was the first break I caught since the first day I came to Ash Springs, but I couldn't manage to feel good about it. It was a bad sign, simple as that and as much as I wanted to turn away… I went inside, creeping slowly into the secure wing's courtyard. Standing before the main building, I was glad that I had cooperated enough to avoid ever risking being sent here. The secure wing had more in common with a prison than a place where people get sent to recover.

The round metal building had plenty of walkways for Firebenders or archers to stand and get a good look of the grounds. The lanterns hanging on the walls only provided enough light to cast unnerving shadows even at night. I did have to admire the flowers and bushes planted around the courtyard. Someone honestly tried to make it seem more inviting than the Boiling Rock but it was going to take a lot more than shrubbery to improve the looks of this place. I didn't spent any more time than I had to admiring the outside and rushed towards the main entrance. None of the faceless seemed to be hanging around so I felt fairly safe to go inside. The main doors weren't locked anymore than the gate to the outer wall. It was easier to get into the secure wing than it took me to get into Doctor Hwang's office when I actually wanted to talk to him. Granted there was a strange mob of faceless people running around… and it certainly looked like something happened here when I got to the entrance hall. I might have well had stepped into a warship. Metal walls, metal ceilings, metal doors with wheel locks. Again, there was an attempt to make it seem inviting with a red carpet, wall decorations and flowers placed here and there. But every time I put my boot on the ground I felt metal. Not to mention it was so quiet. I couldn't find a single person around… not that I would blame them.

"Hello!?" I shouted.

My voice bounced off the walls and came right back at me. No one answered. The first open room I came across was a guard room. The tables were overturned with a bunch of scrolls scattered over the place. I managed to find the roster for the patients in the secure wing. I had an idea that if I could find Azula's room here… I would find the Fire Lord. Assuming nothing bad had already happened to him. Fire Lords were never pushovers when it came to Firebending… but the faceless people weren't exactly average opponents either. Only the blast knocked them back and the way they charged through fire it seemed like only a minor annoyance. I had to move fast. Unfortunately for me the list was longer than I cared to read through. I had to skim it twice before I found Azula's name. To my horror, she was all the way in the back of the secure wing. There was no quick way to get back to her room; I'd practically have to run the whole building. The less time I spent in this place the better. I grabbed a key ring still hanging on the wall and started to head deep inside. The secure wing had three gates to get through before I could even reach the hallway of secure wing residents… but they were all wide open.

The hallway leading to all the rooms had just enough light so you could see where you were going, but not enough to convince you no one was hiding in the shadows. My paranoia quickly became the least of my concerns. I came across an empty room. Quickly, I scanned the patient list to find that it wasn't supposed to be empty. Someone named Tong was supposed to be inside. I didn't have his records, only his other names… one of which included the flattering title of "Tonguecutter". I must have stood frozen in that open door looking over the list for a long time when I picked up the pace. I found more open doors and empty rooms, and they all belonged to someone. Soon, I was getting the picture that the entire secure wing had emptied out. I could only imagine violent and crazy patients running loose along with the faceless monsters outside. What was going on here!? Now all I cared about was finding Azula's room. If she was there… hopefully the Fire Lord was too. If not… I had no reason to hang around the secure wing. I started wondering what I was doing. A part of me really didn't care… just as long as I could talk with the Fire Lord.

The next corner I turned I nearly ran headfirst into Doctor Jing. She stumbled backwards and screamed her head off. I yelled too and nearly burned her down right there. We quickly recognized each other before it got to more shrieking.

"Doctor Jing?" I exclaimed.

"Uzin? What are you doing in the secure wing?"

"I heard the Fire Lord was here... I came to find him!"

"The Fire Lord… Why..."

"What are you doing here?" I returned the question.

"Doctor Zhu called me over. There was an escape… someone was letting patients out of their rooms… but it's much worse than that. You shouldn't be here, it's not safe!"

"Not safe? There are faceless people running around attacking… people!"

"So you've seen them…" She realized.

"Yes, I've seen them. They're everywhere!"

"Listen Uzin, you have to leave. We don't have enough help to round up the escaped paitents, the guards can barely handle the faceless… things out there as it is."

"No, I have to save the Fire Lord." I told her.

"Save the Fire Lord?" Doctor Jing repeated confused. "Uzin… do you know who you are talking about? He has the Avatar with him. Besides, he's not here anymore."

"What? Where is he now?"

I grabbed her arm.

"No! Absolutely not! Uzin, you're risking your life running around alone."

"What? And you aren't?"

"I used to have an escort… I have a responsibility to these patients. I just wanted to move one more when those things attacked… only I managed to get away."

"Look, doctor. I have to find him."

"Uzin, he doesn't need your help! I need your help!" She yanked her arm back.

Doctor Jing wasn't going to tell me even though she knew exactly where he was. I could see it in her eyes. I still couldn't believe I missed him. He must have been here when I was caught at the visitor wing. The only other place on the island I knew of was the main wing where my room was… unless there was another place they didn't disclose to patients. Considering the kind of people they have here… I wouldn't be surprised if there was some secret area reserved for emergencies. Doctor Jing knew.

"Doctor Jing… if I help you will you tell me where the Fire Lord is?"

She hesitated and began to wring her hands together.

"Yes." She said quietly.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I have to move Princess Azula to someplace safer. She can't stay at the secure wing any longer."

My mouth dropped open.

"Doctor… you're crazy. Princess Azula's Firebending is legendary… I mean… blue fire! I'm rusty... I'm only one man!"

Azula may be locked up at Ash Springs but she was still probably better than every Firebender I have ever met. Her fire was blue and on top of that she could bend lightning. I probably wasn't as crazy as her but I didn't stand a chance. No one but the Avatar stood any kind of chance against Azula in a contest of Firebending. And stories said that she managed to kill him once. What was I supposed to do? This was just suicidal!

"I made a promise to the Fire Lord! I am not leaving his sister here!"

Doctor Jing stood firm with her fists balled and her eyes narrowed at me. During that time, I believed she was going to do it no matter what I said.

"She could kill us!"

"You have to trust me, Uzin. She's made progress. She is safe to move."

Suddenly I felt like I belonged at Ash Springs. If I was sane I would have stayed as far away from Azula as I possibly could. But I stood there considering Doctor Jing's proposal and found myself slowly beginning to go along with it. I was going to move the crazy princess. I had to if I was going to find the Fire Lord. Reluctantly I nodded my head.

"Let's get this over with."

Doctor Jing took me directly to Azula's room. The door was securely shut, but she quickly opened it up with her own key. I don't know why, but I kept expecting an explosion or a volcano to erupt as soon as she opened up the door. But nothing happened, not even a chorus of screaming or anything at all to suggest what we were doing was a horrible idea. But I felt it deep down that we were rolling the dice- we probably just couldn't tell yet. If I was smarter I'd just away. But instead I went inside. Azula's room was… surprising. On one hand they really tried hard to make it look like… well, probably her room from the royal palace. The bed I saw there was the nicest bed I'd ever seen in my life. I only ever slept in a cramped bunk bed on a warship. Along with that they had matching dressers and tables covered with vases holding fire lilies. On the other hand it looked like someone tried to torch the place. A broken mirror was up against the wall opposite of the door and there were too many burn marks to count. Finally, there was a single chair. A chair that Princess Azula sat in, facing the only barred window in the room. The second I spotted her I froze in the doorway. Doctor Jing approached Azula like she was any other patient.

"Your highness… Azula," Doctor Jing said softly.

I held my breath. Azula didn't move. From the mirror I saw her cold emotionless stare. She almost looked exactly like I imagined. Well, except her hair. Someone had butchered it with one side terribly uneven. Her robes, while looking formal enough, had all sorts of stains on them. And she just sat there… like a statue. At least until Doctor Jing touched her on the shoulder. Suddenly it was like all her senses snapped back into focus and she turned her head… clearly under whelmed by the doctor's presence.

"What is it?" She said irritated.

"I found someone to help us. We're going to leave now."

Doctor Jing motioned for me to come over. I shook my head. Then Azula turned towards me.

"Who's there?" She demanded.

Doctor Jing motioned towards me again and this time I found the courage to walk over. I was in arms length of Azula. Far, far too close.

"This is Uzin," Doctor Jing explained. "We're going to leave your room and go to the other wing. Are you ready?"

"Mother hasn't visited yet… I'm not going anywhere." Azula decided.

"Remember when your brother visited… and he was cut short. He wanted to talk to you about many things... including your mother. That's why we're leaving the secure wing."

The way Doctor Jing glanced at me... I didn't know if she was telling the truth or just saying whatever it took to keep Azula cooperative.

"Humph. My brother is a terrible liar. He's up to something. I don't know what it is yet... but it doesn't matter."

"I'm going to get a few of your things and then we'll leave quickly."

Doctor Jing took out a bag and moved over to one of the tables. She left me standing next to Azula, who started to stare out the window into the darkness again. I saw a few residents who did this in my wing all the time… but she was so much more intense. Sometimes it seemed like she stopped caring about what was going on around her. Other times she would shift restlessly in her chair. I didn't know what she was thinking about… but I couldn't help but wonder as horrible as it was. It had to be something excruciatingly painful. She would close her eyes and grimace like she was fighting back tears. A lot of residents I knew looked fine enough until you talked to them. Azula looked physically sick along whatever problems she had with her head. I was about to take more than a few steps backwards when she turned towards me. I didn't dare move.

"I've never seen you before in my life… but I know. You fear me."

"That's because all I've ever heard about you, princess… is that whoever doesn't live up to your standards usually don't last very long," I said.

She flashed me a smirk… the kind of smirk that reminded me of Bowyer. Like someone pretending to be sick. But it was so quick that her emotionless stare returned as if she didn't even realize she changed expressions. It seemed more like reflex. Like a habit.

"What do you want from me?" She growled.

"What? Nothing. I want nothing to do with you."

"Really? How do I know you're telling the truth? Hm? How can I be absolutely sure? It's probably... just easier to get rid of you..."

"Doctor Jing," I said quickly. "Can I talk to you?"

I wasn't going to try to carry a conversation with Azula. When I was in the navy, Fire Nation royalty seemed like they were in another world. I'd never even talked with Admiral Zhao. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to talk with her when she was sane. Now, she seemed more like a barrel of blasting jelly. Mess around with it long enough the wrong way and it's the last thing you'll ever do. She didn't even have any restraints. This was insane. I kept saying that to myself. This was insane. Quickly, I moved over to the table on the other side of the room and grabbed Doctor Jing by the shoulder.

"Just what exactly is wrong with Azula anyway? All I've ever heard about her is that she's crazy. Crazy with what? What do I do? How do I keep her from losing it and shooting blue fire at me?" I whispered harshly.

"I have an obligation to every patient. She deserves some discretion. Besides, Doctor Zhu handles most of her sessions."

"If we're going to do this I need to know."

"I've only briefly read his notes on her…" Doctor Jing protested.

"Anything is better than nothing." I kept pressing her.

"As I understand it… Princess Azula had certain expectations. Not only about others but herself. Unfortunately... she couldn't live up to them. The anger at her own mistakes, no matter how small... it's terrible. She can't forgive herself. Her first breakdown occurred at the end of the war… after losing an Agni Kai…"

"I wasn't trying to win," Azula said from across the room, apparently perfectly capable of hearing us. "I just wanted to hurt little Zuzu... as badly as I could."

Doctor Jing looked horrified that we had been overheard. I can't say we were trying very hard in the first place.

"She doesn't seem all that bad now…" I commented angrily.

"Fortunately it's one of her good days. Look, we really don't have time to cover this. We need to leave- now!"

I took a deep breath and turned around to see Doctor Jing slowly coaxing Azula to stand up. Azula seemed to comply well enough… but that was just getting her out of a chair. We had to get out of the secure wing, cross a courtyard, and anything else outside going… who knew where. This was a bad idea. I wasn't sure just how exactly far we were going to get. But the best thing I could compare it to… a dice toss. We'd be lucky if we got halfway across the secure wing's courtyard…

Next Chapter: Chain Lightning


	6. Chapter 6: Chain Lightning

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 6: Chain Lightning

Doctor Jing led the way with Azula in tow. I rounded out the back, going as quickly and as cautiously as I could. But how Azula moved was to hunch over and not so much walk… but jerk along in a not so graceful manner. Getting back to the entrance hall of the secure wing could have gone faster… but we got there without any problems. Now it came down to the courtyard and beyond. I don't know why I kept dreading the courtyard but if something bad was going to happen, it was going to be there. Peeking through the front entrance door, it was clear. Or it looked clear, who knew just what exactly was going on out there anyway?

"Are you ready?" I asked Doctor Jing.

She nodded.

"Look, once we get past the outer wall… we shouldn't spend a whole lot of time wondering around."

"It's okay; we're going to the main wing." She told me.

Great, right back where I started. Both of us looked to Azula, who still didn't seem to care what was going on. And with that we went outside and started across the courtyard. Thankfully the whole area was clear of any faceless people. I almost couldn't believe it. Nothing went this smooth ever. I had no reason to be on edge but I was, and halfway across the courtyard I was rewarded for my uneasiness. We could hear footsteps from someone using the walkways. I started to look around, and it didn't take me long before I spotted someone moving along the outer wall. It was Bowyer. He was now standing above the gate with that stupid grin plastered across his face.

"Uzin," he said first. "What a great surprise."

"Bowyer? What are you doing here?" I wondered aloud.

"It's not safe here. You shouldn't be out of your room!" Doctor Jing added.

"You mean all the faceless people. Humph. You know, I always thought about what I would do if I ever got out of Ash Springs. And then the faceless showed up. Everyone is so busy running for their lives… I can finally do whatever I want without someone threatening to throw me into the cool down room or the secure wing."

I didn't like where this was going.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Then I realized that… what I wanted more than anything else... I wanted to see the legendary Firebending of Princess Azula. I wanted to see the blue flame."

Azula didn't react to Bowyer's request. I couldn't tell if she didn't care or just didn't hear him. But Doctor Jing heard him clearly, and was already shaking her head.

"No! Absolutely not! That would be a terrible relapse of her therapy!"

"Oh I know all about your strange definition of therapy. In Doctor Zhu's office there was a small book on Azula's condition. Most of it was boring, but the worst part had to be when you actually convinced her to stop Firebending. Why would you ever do that?"

"That's because she only Firebends now when she's angry or hurt. She goes into a rage… it's not healthy! What you're asking is irresponsible and dangerous!" Doctor Jing shouted at Bowyer.

Bowyer didn't care. He went on with his story.

"But the best part had to be the objects that triggered the most violent reactions from Azula. Most of it had to do with her hair. Things like… scissors… or a brush."

"No… no…" Doctor Jing cried.

"Come on Bowyer! I always thought you were a jerk! Not a complete monster!" I said. I didn't know what he was going to do, but if anything I said could stop him I was going to go for it.

"Like I said before Uzin. You don't know me." He had something in his hand. "Try to have a little fun. I know I will."

He flashed a smile and then threw a small object between us. Doctor Jing tried to retrieve it but Azula had already bent over and scooped it up. It was a gold hairbrush.

"No! Stop!"

Doctor Jing became frightened and I saw why. Azula had a death grip on the brush like she was trying to break it in two. Her expression changed to this amazingly fierce snarl with her teeth clenched together and her eyes bulging. She threw her head back and began to spew blue fire into the air with a terrible scream. Suddenly she was spitting fire all over the place. I had to cover my head and stumble backwards to avoid getting burned since I made the mistake of standing close to her. But Doctor Jing didn't budge with her mouth moving. I couldn't hear what she was saying over Azula's screaming. Maybe she was trying to calm her down. Whatever it was it wasn't working.

"Doctor Jing! Get away from her!" I yelled.

When Azula quit coughing up fire, she tossed the brush in her hand like it was a knife and hit Doctor Jing right between the eyes. I had never seen anyone hit the ground so fast. The doctor had to have been knocked out cold. Now Azula faced me, looking like she was dead set on incinerating me. And all it took was a hairbrush!

"Oh no." I gasped.

Anything I had to say Azula didn't want to hear. She started shooting off wide bursts of blue fireballs one after another. I tried to retreat with defensive fire blasts but Azula was too strong. Her fire easily cut through mine and launched me backwards. I hit the ground and kept sliding until I practically slammed up against the outer wall. The pain did not disappoint. Either that or I had been at taking it easy Ash Springs for too long. By the time I sat up everything that was flammable around Azula was lit up. The whole place was turning into a bad training yard. I got to my feet just in time to stumble out of the way of a wave of fire heading right for me. Azula didn't slow down for a second. I was running for my life with nowhere to go. The main gate was guarded by a crazy princess with her heart set on killing me. With a few counter blasts, I avoided enough attacks to get her really angry. Azula started to bend lightning. I bet it was more than Bowyer could have hoped for.

"I'll show you lightning." Azula hissed.

She swiped her hands across the air, creating blue crackling lines of instant death. I had heard of Firebenders good enough to pull it off… but I had never seen any in person. Not even Admiral Zhao could bend lightning. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I had never faced anything like this before. No training or experience I could draw on helped me formulate a way to avoid death. I just stood watching her with my mouth open as she readied her attack. Her whole body reared back as she caught the charge on one hand and fired away. I wish I could say I dodged it. If I was that quick on my feet I could have avoided a lot of painful injuries when I served in the navy. But no. It was all Azula. She missed me. The lightning strike crashed into the secure wing causing an explosion. Dazed I looked behind me to see the metal twisted into sharp jutting edges. She missed me… by a hair on my head. This was crazy. A passing ship could have noticed Azula's rampage! And somehow I was still in one piece.

No telling if I was going to make it through this, but if I did I was going to kill Bowyer. I saw him still watching from his perch on the walkways. Then he looked over his shoulder and started to leave. I quickly learned why. The mayhem Azula was causing managed to attract the faceless! They began to pour into the courtyard. A lot of them piled in. I mean a lot. But Azula heard them coming and spun around. She was more than happy to have the extra targets and started to fire away with kicks and punches without missing a step. I didn't know whether I should try to help her or help the faceless. Sure, there were a lot of them and only one Azula… but what was worse? I didn't have the state of mind to sort it out. Meanwhile, Bowyer was making his escape and I couldn't stop him.

"First you... my brother... then everyone!" Azula yelled at the top of her lungs.

She broke out into an unnerving laugh before a mood swing brought her to tears. I was no doctor but I had to call that a relapse of epic proportions. She tore into the faceless that tried to rush her. They were tossed around like an Earthbender was catapulting them. Every time I heard a metallic ping, it was one of them hitting the outer wall. Unfortunately, the way Azula was going at it, she couldn't keep it up all day. More faceless entered the courtyard than she had energy. Quickly she was doubled over trying to catch her breath and ramble on at the same time. Even in her exhaustion it took three of the faceless to tackle her to the ground and four to start to drag her away by the legs. And she was still raging on. Doctor Jing was also being lifted up and carried away. I just stood there, motionless, watching like an idiot. By the time I snapped out of it, Azula and Doctor Jing had already disappeared past the gate. The faceless were making off with my one way to find out where the Fire Lord was! I started to run after them as they retreated, as stupid as that sounded. Strangely they didn't seem to care about me for whatever reason. Maybe Azula's thrashing had scared them. I didn't know, but I wasn't going to lose them.

I kept my eyes out for Doctor Jing who was now being dragged across the ground as the faceless ran into the palm forest. They were all breaking off into smaller groups and scattering. Why? Maybe they were leading me into a trap. Nothing I had seen so far made me think they were capable of that kind of planning. I could barely keep up with Doctor Jing as it was, leaping rocks and nearly tripping on stray vines. We reached a clearing somewhere between the secure wing and the main wing when I felt something hit me. It was a plop, right on the end of my nose. I held my hand out and felt another plop hit me in the palm. Rain. Oh no. It was rain. Not now! I stopped in the middle of the field. Doctor Jing was quickly being dragged out of view but I couldn't move. Another raindrop hit me in the face and I flinched like someone had punched me.

"No! Please! Not now!" I shouted to myself.

The rain came faster and faster until it was a full downpour. I couldn't get out of it. I tried to protect my face… but the water… it was everywhere. It was raining so hard. All I could do was scream, shake, and flail around the field in an unstoppable wave of panic. When I hit the ground… I landed in snow. Almost as quickly as I fell I jumped back up to knock the flakes off me and looked around wide-eyed in confusion. It was the Northern Water Tribe- right in front of the temple located far back inside the city. But there was no one around, only ice statues of Fire Nation soldiers. Spearmen, Firebenders, swordsmen and even our tanks. Full scale ice sculptures in various poses, attacking some invisible opponent. I knew what was coming next. The gigantic embodiment of the ocean coming to shatter everything, it was inevitable. I started to run… but found my feet frozen to the ground. If I fought hard enough, I could get loose. But as soon as my feet touched the ground again they would freeze. I wasn't going to make it; I was going to be crushed!

As I tried to run, the world changed around me into a strange plot of grass in the middle of the ice and snow. It looked like a shrine and it was so warm. A young girl was sitting there next to a pond… her hair was white, her robes were white... every part of her was bathed in a strange white light. I knew, she had to be a spirit. My reaction was to run. I had to get away... I couldn't face her. Everything that I did at the North Pole... I had nothing to say. No apology, no explanation... there was nothing I could say to the spirits to gain their forgiveness. But I wasn't moving. I moved my legs as fast as I could and went nowhere. It was only a matter of time before she stood up and spotted me next to the pond.

"I'm sorry!" I yelled. "Forgive me! Please!"

The girl had a sad smile and sighed.

"It's not my decision to make."

It started to rain icicles. The sharp, jagged icicles that punched through everything turned into makeshift prison bars, trapping me into a tiny square. But I couldn't get out of the way and my legs were frozen to the ground. I could only wait… with the water around the shrine starting to flood everything. The girl covered in the white light disappeared into the air as the water rushed in over my waist. I tried to catch my breath, but I couldn't breathe. When the water overtook my head, I didn't have any air to hold in…

-Next Chapter: The Face Stealer of Ash Springs


	7. Chapter 7: Face Stealer of Ash Springs

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 7: The Face Stealer of Ash Springs

I snapped to consciousness drenched in sweat. My head was killing me and every part of my body throbbed with pain when I tried to sit up. But I couldn't. My arms, my legs, even my head was strapped down. I could hardly jerk around to see where I was. It reminded me of a room from the main wing… only darkened and it looked like a stampede of saber-toothed moose lions crashed through the place. I couldn't see enough to really be sure, for the most part I was stuck staring at the ceiling which didn't even have an interesting pattern. When I tried to escape with Firebending, I didn't have any luck. I couldn't get to whatever was holding me down, and if I wasn't hurting so badly I might have been able to break the restraints… assuming they weren't metal. How did I even get here? I couldn't remember what happened to me after I reached the clearing. Doctor Jing was slipping away and I… it was all blank. If Doctor Hwang was here he'd probably tell me I had another episode and that I should take it easy so I could rest. Not that I had a choice in the matter now. It seemed like I struggled forever before someone finally entered the room. I couldn't see them, but I could hear their footsteps.

"Hey, who's there? Get me out of this thing! Did you hear me?" I shouted.

Whoever it was moved to my side, and gave me something else to worry about. It was the Face Stealer Man standing over me, with a theater mask on.

"Oh no. Not you."

"Do not worry! I have had an awakening!" He exclaimed with his hands in the air.

I couldn't believe my ears. The Face Stealer Man had always referred to himself in third person. Every day I was forced to spend circle time with him, or be in the same room with him he always did it. But not now, and he sounded crazier than usual because of it. He must have... found me outside...

"What?" It was all I could say.

"Before, I felt that I was the Face Stealer because the village I came from… always whispered his name in stories and legends. Families, elders, they all knew, and they spoke."

"Legends from your village? What are you-"

"I thought they were all talking about me! We had so much in common!" The Face Stealer Man went on. "But now I know… I have seen the real Face Stealer! With my own eyes! Oh, I wish you were there! Deep underground! In a giant cavern! I heard him speak! It was… magnificent! Truly astounding!"

He started to pace around me making great sweeping motions with his hands. I could see them every now and then. I tried to think what time was worse- before or after he stopped calling himself the Face Stealer. Who ever the other one was… it had left a bad impression on him.

"The real Face Stealer? Make sense!"

He didn't seem to hear anything I said. He just kept going on like I cared what he had to say.

"It was then I realized that I was not him. I was his servant! Like a sage! Here to interpret his actions and explain them to others! That's what I am. I am a sage! A Face Stealer Sage!"

"What? Temples have sages. You're just a nutcase wearing masks!"

This time he heard me, and leaned over me on my left side.

"No no no! I'm part of something important! I am doing the work of the spirits!"

"The Spirits? The Face Stealer is a spirit?"

A powerful wave of dread washed over me. I knew it... I knew it was the spirits.

"Oh yes! A very old one! Older than you or I could possibly imagine! It's why I was so confused before!"

"So... is that why there are all those faceless people running around?"

"Oh no no no. That is not his work. That is simply… a fool tampering with the spirit world. But they don't understand! I do! And my first act is to bring the great Face Stealer… a face!"

I started to get a bad feeling. It only got worse when he started to scrounge around the room. All I could hear was metal bumping up against metal and a lot of scraping. When the Face Stealer leaned over me again, he had a knife in his hand.

"Wait! He told you do to this!?" I yelled in protest.

"Told me… why… no… I didn't talk with him. I heard him speak… in the darkness. I heard the undeniable truth! What the Face Stealer wants… the Face Stealer gets!"

Suddenly I was cursing myself for not learning the breath of fire. I never thought I'd ever find a situation to use it, not to mention it was a difficult technique to master in the first place. But it wasn't that I couldn't do it, I was just lazy. I wanted to spit fire right at the Face Stealer Man's stupid mask but I couldn't. He was going to take my face… literally. No harmless clay recreation in the arts room to complain about later to Doctor Hwang.

"You touch me and I'll burn you alive!" I yelled.

The Face Stealer Man stood for a long time with a knife in his hand. Then he looked at it and shook his head.

"This will not do. I need something sharper!"

I heard him scurry away. Soon as he left I struggled harder in my restraints. I had to get out of here! He was really going to do it. I rocked back and forth but whatever he tied me down with it wasn't budging. When I heard him come back I only fought harder. It wasn't working. I started to yell when a familiar smile leaned over me. It was Joo Dee!

"Hello Uzin. What a surprise to run into you at the infirmary," She said.

"Joo Dee! Listen! You have to get me out of this!"

"Are you sure? It looks very therapeutic. In Ba Sing Se, sometimes troubled citizens are treated to sessions like this so they could relax."

"Do I look relaxed!? Untie me! Now!"

"Well... I am not so sure."

"I'm not supposed to be here! It's a mistake!"

"Oh, you mean an administrative error? Why didn't you say so?"

All I needed was one restraint undone, and I launched into getting the others off. They were metal clamps, no wonder. I jumped off the table and nearly hugged her. Even with her creepy smile. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be glad to see Joo Dee. Now I could finally get a better look where I was, it was the second floor infirmary- only completely wrecked.

"Where'd you come from?" I asked, trying to figure out what to do next.

"Oh well, this place is a bit of a mess so I've been trying to clean some of it up. An orderly space is a place where everyone can live happily."

The Face Stealer Man came back in the room, holding a bigger knife than before. It looked more like a sword. He turned to me, then Joo Dee before yelling in anger.

"No! Don't go! I need your face! This is really, really important! You don't understand!" He cried.

I launched a fireball at him as quickly as I could. He partially blocked it with the knife and stumbled backwards toppling over a bed in the process.

"Excuse me, but I don't think you are supposed to be fighting in the infirmary." Joo Dee told us.

The Face Stealer Man bounced back up and jumped over the bed before charging right back at me. I burnt his feet with a sweep kick and sent him dancing across the room into a table. After he stomped the flames out he crouched over and ducked into a hole in the wall I didn't notice. I punched a blast of fire after him and leaned over to look in. It went to another room full of beds.

"Joo Dee, stay here!" I told her before going through the hole.

The minute I stepped through a bed crashed right into me. The Face Stealer Man was kicking them across the floor and throwing whatever was handy. I blasted a lantern out of the air and created a fire whip to start holding him off. Every time he tried to get close, I snapped it at his sore feet and he jumped backwards. I almost had him corralled in a corner when he leapt up like an acrobat at the window and flipped up somewhere outside. I mean, he was pretty fast but that took me by surprise. When I followed after him, we were running across the roof of the main wing, two floors up with the wind blowing and the sun starting to rise in the distance. I couldn't get the Face Stealer Man with repeated fire blasts as he jumped and ducked and rolled. It was getting ridiculous, but he was running out of roof top. I wasn't about to let him go. He'd just find someone else to terrorize. If it came to it, I'd let the fall kill him.

"Where are you going? I thought you said you wanted my face! You sounded so excited!" I shouted.

The Face Stealer Man didn't reply. He reached the edge of the roof and paced back and forth, looking from the edge to me and back. I blasted the knife out of his clutches and he danced around with his burnt hand shoved under one arm. Finally cornered, he turned around as I slowly edged towards him.

"How can I gain the favor the Face Stealer without something to give him!?" He worried aloud.

"What makes you think the spirits want anything from you?"

"Because I know him! Nearly the whole world has forgotten! But I haven't! I know!"

"Good for you!"

I kicked a strong wave of fire his way to shut him up for good. But he turned and jumped off the roof. I was stunned. He actually jumped. Then I made my way to the edge and looked down. The Face Stealer Man had broken his fall with a palm tree and managed to get up. He limped a little, but was making an escape. I couldn't hit him from that distance, but I tried anyway. But before he could get much further from the tree the faceless appeared. They pounced on him. It took no time at all before they were dragging him away. But he didn't fight. He wasn't unconscious, but he wasn't struggling like Azula at the secure wing. He just… let them take him. With everything he said… I wondered if the faceless were taking him to the Face Stealer. I mean… the real Face Stealer if what he said wasn't a crazy fantasy. But I didn't know. If anyone knew it was going to be the Avatar. No telling where he was in all of this. By now, he'd probably already ferried the Fire Lord to safety.

I returned to the infirmary to find Joo Dee still there. She was trying to clean up, picking up all kinds of broken pieces and piling them in the corner of the room. When she saw me come in she stopped what she was doing and gave me a polite bow.

"Where did that man with the delightful masks go?" Joo Dee asked.

"Gone. Taken away."

"Oh, well I hope he gets better soon."

"Not where he's going…" I muttered to myself.

"Anything else I can do for you?" Joo Dee asked after a long silence.

"No… you've done enough for me. Thank you. If you knew where the Fire Lord was… I don't think I could express how grateful I would be."

"Well, the last time I saw the Fire Lord he was with the Avatar in the dining area. I think they were waiting for someone… But that was some time ago."

"What? You mean here?"

She nodded. Could I really be that close? The dining area was just downstairs in the back of the main wing. But if they really were there… would they just let Joo Dee run around alone?

"Why aren't you staying with them where it's safe?" I asked.

"Oh, I didn't meet them directly. I merely saw them as I passed by. One does not simply pop in on important world leaders. A very thorough application process comes first."

For a minute I was confused, and then I remembered that she was a resident at Ash Springs for a reason. It was starting to show.

"Look, Joo Dee… I have to find him. You should find a safe place and hide." Not that I knew where safe was around here anymore.

"Don't worry about me. I'm very careful. Some parts of Ba Sing Se are dangerous so I've had a lot of practice with these kinds of things. Now, if that will be all, I have many more matters to attend to."

With that Joo Dee left. I don't know why I didn't try to stop her. Maybe I was amazed that she was still around. You'd think she would be the biggest target on the island with that beaming smile of hers. Maybe it kept the faceless away because they just couldn't stand it. Whatever happened, she started to drift to the back of my mind. The Fire Lord might still be on the island and safe. If he was in the dining room like Joo Dee said I'd only have to go down a set of stairs and a hallway to reach him. He had to be there. He had to be…

-Next Chapter: The Longest Hallways


	8. Chapter 8: The Longest Hallways

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 8: The Longest Hallways

I didn't think twice about the distance it took to get to the dining room. The biggest obstacle in my way was a staircase. But I should have known better. I had just left the second floor infirmary and started down the hallway to find the stairs to the ground floor. The main wing had become just as abandoned as the secure wing. The only thing left hanging around now was eerie echoes, shadows and a bad feeling in my stomach. I crept along the halls at a slow, but steady pace. I had my eyes out for anything that might pose a threat. The faceless, escaped patients, Bowyer, or anything else that was out there. The Face Stealer Man said he had seen the spirits. Even if he was crazy, the fact that he had gotten over his identity crisis was more than enough for me to believe him. I just didn't know what exactly he meant. There was so much he could have gotten wrong or left out. All I had was the idea, a horrible idea. I did the best I could to push that out of my mind as I headed towards the dining room. The Fire Lord might be at the main wing, and I was going to find him. No more running around, doing favors and nearly getting killed.

I reached the stairs and started to head down them when I heard knocking and scraping. At the bottom of the staircase was someone wearing a water tribe parka with their back to me. It was a kid, maybe a little younger than a teenager. I didn't know what to think. Ash Springs didn't have any children on the island and we didn't have any Waterbender residents either. Was I having another episode? Maybe I was still a little shaky after getting caught in the rain outside. I should have stayed away... but I had to know if I was seeing things. Getting around the island was hard enough. I couldn't afford to be seeing things that weren't there.

"Hey, are you okay?" I called down the stairs.

The water tribe kid turned around. Faceless. I couldn't believe it. Faceless children. If I wasn't so stunned I would have yelled in frustrated agony. After I opened my mouth, the faceless kid started to crawl up the stairs. A small parade of faceless kids followed. All of them started to rush up the stairs. Now they were all after me. I started to run right back the way I came as they reached the top of the stairs and spilled into the hallway. I was going the opposite way of the dining hall, but if I turned around I'd just be taken away like everyone else who got caught by the faceless. It was just a little race now, with me leading the way. I passed by the infirmary and turned a corner, sprinting pass empty rooms. What I would give just to throw a bed in the middle of the hallway just to slow the faceless kids down. Any time I looked over my shoulder they were right on me. They seemed a lot faster than the others. One almost dove and grabbed my leg as I turned another corner, heading towards Doctor Hwang's office.

All this running was just putting more and more distance between me and the dining hall. But it was about to get a whole lot worse as another mob of faceless started coming right at me. Suddenly, I was pinched in the hallway, with little faceless coming up behind me and more right up ahead. I only had one option for escape at that point. I leapt out a window into the courtyard. I tried to use the decorative awning as a landing point so when I hit the ground it wouldn't hurt so much. It worked… not so well. Well enough so I didn't break anything when I fell flat on the courtyard grass. I was just about to congratulate myself on an escape well done when I looked up to see the faceless taking my lead. They started to jump out as well, not as concerned as I was when it came to making a landing. Most of them hit the ground faster and got up like nothing happened. Just like when the Royal Guards tried to fight them off with Firebending, nothing slowed them down.

"Oh come on!" I moaned, starting to run again.

I exited the courtyard into the entrance hall. For a second I considered going outside. I could avoid them in the palm forest, just like when I went from the visitor wing to the secure wing. But the thought of rain stopped me. That couldn't happen ever again. I don't think I could take it. Instead I picked a hallway, heading now to the first floor infirmary. At this rate I was going to make a huge circle. Luckily the faceless didn't seem to plan anything out. All of them seemed only capable of scrambling around and flailing about. Whether or not they grabbed anyone seemed strictly chance. So in a way, I was just stupid enough to get their attention instead of sneaking around. But how was I supposed to know there would be faceless children? That seemed… too horrible to consider. I didn't want to believe it. But a water tribe kid at this place was obvious enough that I should have stayed away. I was paying for it now. As fast as I ran, the faceless were always right on me. If I couldn't outrun them, I was going to have to hide somehow. It came down to the records room.

The records room had all the files of every patient at Ash Springs since the place opened. Shelves and shelves and rooms and rooms of scrolls and files and doctor's notes could all be found in a huge room that patients like me were never allowed inside. Not that stopped me now. All it took was Firebending and a kick to break the door down. Inside, it looked more like a warehouse than a place that belonged at Ash Springs. I took an isle and made a dead run to the other side of the room. The deeper inside the records room I went, the dustier the place got. The faceless started to run down all the isles they could manage with their huge group. I could hear them, and I could see them through the shelves. A room this big, there had to be a hiding spot! At the least, all the isles had the faceless confused… I think. None of them had run across me yet and I was still looking around for a safe place. Somewhere in the section of the room about past administrators I found a ladder. It was one of those ladders with wheels that you'd use to get to the higher shelves. I started to climb it as fast as I could. I didn't stop until I reached the top of the shelf. There was hardly enough room for me to squirm in there, but I managed. Now I was perched on top of one of the shelves in the shadows where the light didn't reach. You'd have to have eyes to find me… or at least I hoped.

The faceless continued to hunt the records room. I stayed in my hiding position, desperately trying to resist looking off one of the shelves to see what was happening. It was working… and then my nose started to itch. There must have been two hundred years worth of dust on top of that shelf… and some of it was making it up my nose. After all that… no way was I going to sneeze. If the faceless were going to drag me off I was going to go out like Azula. No way was a stupid sneeze going to be the thing that gets me killed after everything I survived so far. I kept thinking against sneezing… but the urge was horrible. I carefully tried to cover my nose to hold it back… but I couldn't do it in time. I sneezed at the top of the shelf. The whole thing wobbled, enough to let every faceless in the record room know exactly where I was. They tackled the shelf without losing a second and sent the whole thing falling over. I yelled in anger… mostly at myself as I fell off the shelf and hit the ground. A mound of old scrolls soon buried me, and then the shelf landed. It hurt almost as much as jumping from the second floor to the courtyard. I was buried in old records and a shelf.

I was amazed as I realized that I was perfectly hidden. Through a small hole in the mess piled on top of me I saw the faceless scurry around the pile of broken shelves. Too many times they almost stepped on me, but they never tried to dig me out or run across the ruin to see what happened . I held my breath and didn't move a muscle. I watched them run around until they lost interest. By the time they left, I almost suffocated. First I took a deep breath, and then I started to pull myself out. The faceless had destroyed the records room. A whole row of shelves had tumbled over after I sneezed, and sorting all these scrolls seemed like a lost cause. Not that I was going to spend any time going through them, I was just glad I didn't get scooped up by the faceless. It was… too close. Really, too close. My nose almost got me caught. I never thought I'd have such an appreciation for cleaning until that moment. If it wasn't for that dust… I wouldn't have had an entire shelf dropped on me! My body hurt… but nothing was broken and at least I wasn't trapped under there or I'd need a whole mob pulling on me to get loose.

I had to get to the dining room before my luck ran out. But I didn't get too far when I noticed a doorway I didn't see before because of the shelves. The doorway was covered by a slab of rock, fitted to perfectly block the whole thing. Maybe it was Liu. He was the only Earthbender I knew at Ash Springs. Not the say the Avatar didn't come through and block it off for a reason, but I doubted that. Hesitantly, I knocked on the block of stone. It seemed pretty solid, definitely the work of an Earthbender. Then I heard a voice.

"Go away!"

It was muffled, but a few cracks in the doorframe were enough so that I could hear it.

"Liu? Are you in there?" I asked.

"I said go away! She's out there!"

It was Liu! The Dai Li guy!

"Hey! It's Uzin! From the dining hall? Remember me?" I said.

"I know who you are… you have to leave… get away." He stuttered.

Liu sounded more afraid than I've ever heard him before. At times, during group sessions he'd sound a little nervous talking… but not like this.

"What happened? Liu? You sound frightened."

"I saw her! She's here! She looks blind… but she sees everything!"

"Who's here? What are you talking about?" I asked confused.

Maybe he was talking about the blind girl in his nightmares. He had always been scared to death of her… everyone knew that…

"Go away! If she finds you… she'll find me! I'm not safe!" Liu continued to whimper.

"But you've barricaded the whole door with a huge stone…"

"She can bend metal!" Liu yelled at the top of his lungs. "How can someone so young have that kind of power? I have to hide! But you're ruining everything!"

I tried to imagine what could have possibly set Liu off. Then I remembered the faceless kids I ran into a little while ago. He must have seen one of them and feared the worst. After that, his imagination filled in all the blank spots.

"Liu! That girl isn't here… it's just the faceless! Some of them are children!" I explained.

Right after I said that, I started to wonder how exactly that was supposed to make him feel better. The girl he was afraid of sounded bad… but were creepy faceless children really any better? I still didn't know what to make of them.

"Go away!" Liu cried again.

I had to get him out of there. Not just because he was losing his mind… but because a sane Dai Li agent was just what Ash Springs needed. He could use all kinds of Earthbending tricks to corral the faceless and block off openings… I could probably find the Fire Lord in double time with him helping. If Doctor Hwang was here he'd probably know what to say.

"Look, if you get out of there… we can find Doctor Hwang. He can talk to the girl… explain that you have some problems with her. Liu… it'll be alright." I assured him.

Liu was quiet for a long time. When he spoke up, he was almost whispering.

"No… Doctor Hwang is gone. I saw him… he's gone."

I wanted to ask him what 'gone' meant. But who was I kidding? I knew what he was saying. The faceless got to Doctor Hwang. If that was true… and they got Doctor Jing. Doctor Zhu was the only one unaccounted for. The only one who actually wasn't crazy that could take control of the situation.

"Fine! We'll go get Doctor Zhu. Just get out of there Liu!" I yelled.

"Doctor Zhu… no! He thinks he can save himself… he's just making it worse! Stay away from him! Uzin… if you see Doctor Zhu! Run! He's making deals at the cost of everyone else!"

He was too scared. Just like the Face Stealer Man… he'd seen something that changed him. I felt like I was the only one who didn't know what was going on around here. I tried a few more times to defuse Liu's fear of the little blind girl but it didn't work. He made her out to be some kind of unstoppable monster Earthbender who could bend metal and read your mind and all sorts of… crazy stuff. That and he seemed afraid of Doctor Zhu now. Because of something the doctor did. I didn't know what he was talking about but I didn't have time to play questions and answers.

"What about the Fire Lord? And the Avatar? They can save you from her."

"Are you crazy!? The Avatar is her friend!"

"Liu… I can't just leave you here," I said.

"The faceless can't get in… and as long as she doesn't find me… I'll be alright."

Finally I had enough of Liu. He turned everything I said into more reasons to stay holed up. I couldn't get him out of there.

"Fine, stay in there. I'm going to the dining hall. If you change your mind… you know where to find me."

"Remember… Doctor Zhu is dangerous Uzin! He's crazy!"

Liu wasn't coming out of there. At least not while the faceless roamed the island. I headed off towards the dining room; hopefully the Fire Lord would be there. But with the faceless chasing me and all the time that wasted… I felt like there was no way. I was still going to try but it was hard to keep my hopes up...

-Next Chapter: An Audience with the Fire Lord


	9. Chapter 9: Audience with the Fire Lord

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 9: An Audience with the Fire Lord

My first glance at the dining area I nearly lost it. It seemed like no one was there. The darkened room had nothing but rows of long empty tables. I was too late. Or maybe Joo Dee was mistaken, not that it mattered. With the faceless chasing me around I was too late. The Fire Lord wasn't there; I was back to square one. I sat down feeling more frustrated then I've ever been, I might have torched something. Then I looked again, and noticed someone in the very back, near the entrance to the kitchen.

"Who's there? Say something."

When I got closer, I recognized who it was. It was the Avatar! I nearly froze in shock. The Avatar was sitting in the back corner with his legs crossed, that's why I almost didn't notice him. He was meditating or… something. I looked again if there was anyone else in the dining area but it was only the Avatar… sitting there with his eyes closed. I don't know how long it took me to make my way over to him. I still couldn't believe it. That was probably the only reason why I didn't lose my mind. I was standing right in front of him. He didn't move- just held his meditating pose. With the arrow tattoos and the orange robes… I never had such a good look before. He seemed a little older than that time at the North Pole with different clothes… but it was him. Not even a foot away. But all I could think was how angry I was. He came in at the wrong time in the recreation room, and he was there at the North Pole inside the giant water monster grinding up the whole Fire Nation fleet. I started to reach towards his neck. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do… only I'd know when I got a hold of him.

"No! Don't touch him." I turned to see the Fire Lord had stepped out of the kitchen looking right at me. "The Avatar is in the spirit world right now."

I took my hand back and stared in disbelief. It was the Fire Lord! It was actually him! In the moment of finally getting what I wanted for once, I forgot all rules of etiquette. I didn't bow or kneel out of respect. I stared at him. By the time I remembered, and attempted to make up for my mistake, the Fire Lord had already raised his hand.

"This really isn't the time."

"Forgive me, Fire Lord. I've been looking for you since you arrived here… I have so many questions…"

"Questions?" The Fire Lord raised an eyebrow.

"Right, I mean… yes…" Everything was falling apart, I couldn't think.

"You were the solider who collapsed in the recreation room the first day." He realized.

"My name is Uzin. I served under Admiral Zhao during the Siege of the North. I've never been able to make sense of all the… things that happened during the operation. All the time I've spent here I've been told to talk about it. And I've talked about it plenty… I know what happened, but I don't know why."

I paused to see how he reacted. His eyes were narrowed, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Maybe… he looked more confused than anything else. I can't say I was helping him. I felt like I was rambling on, more nervous than I should be, and acting like someone worthy of staying at Ash Springs. Any other situation and the Royal Guard would have dragged me away. All I wanted was to have an audience with him, and now that I had it, I didn't know what to do. He was the Fire Lord, ruler of our country, caught in a strange swarm of faceless people ravaging an island where crazy people lived. What business did I have to ask him questions? Thinking about it all… I felt hopeless and practically collapsed at one of the tables.

"Fire Lord Zuko… I apologize for being so disrespectful. Ever since I heard rumors that you were at the North Pole during the invasion… I thought you would have answers for what happened. It's all I could think about. I set out last night to sneak into your room so I could ask you. But you weren't there. I've been running all over since then."

The Fire Lord joined me at the table and folded his arms in his sleeves. He sat up straight while I leaned on the table wringing my hands together.

"Yes, I was there… but I'm not sure what you hope to learn," He said.

"I understand if you don't want to speak to me."

"No, it's alright. I have a lot to answer for my father's actions during the war. Not just to the nations we invaded, but to the Fire Nation as well. The Siege of the North is just one of many."

I bowed. My entire body started to relax and I could suddenly think clearly.

"It's the water monster the Avatar raised. It was horribly frightening and destructive… but it was more than that. It brought a life to the ocean that I've never seen before… a terrible rage. Anger so intense that… I felt it. After that day, it seemed like every form of water became a threat. The rain, rivers, lakes, the ocean… it was out to get me. It wanted me to drown. It wanted to kill me. My fears only got worse when I heard stories that the Avatar brought in the intervention of the spirits. The spirits never forget. That's what my mother and father always said. As long as I could remember they've always said to be respectful and thoughtful of the spirits. Everyone just thought they were superstitious... including me."

"How did you survive the Siege of the North?" The Fire Lord asked carefully.

"In the retreat I managed to reach one of the ships, but it couldn't pull away fast enough and was cut in two by the water monster. I was thrown from the deck and managed to swim to an iceberg. I could only watch the chaos from there until the sun rose the next morning. A lifeboat of survivors managed to find me and we made a long journey back to an outpost in the Earth Kingdom. I should have counted myself lucky I made it out alive… but… the fear never went away. I could hardly live in my own village. Eventually, my family sent me here."

The Fire Lord became quiet and lowered his head. I couldn't bear to stare at him waiting for his answers. Unfortuantely the only other person in the room I could look to was the Avatar. He had not moved during our entire conversation, and for that I was glad. I almost couldn't stand to be this close to him. Just another source of anxiety I didn't need. Not in the presence of the Fire Lord.

"I first heard the story of what happened from my uncle. You probably know him as General Iroh…" The Fire Lord began.

I nodded. Everyone in the Fire Nation had heard about the Dragon of the West in one way or another. Whether you respected him… or hated him.

"…and then later from Aang: the Avatar. You should know that what happened at the North Pole is not your fault. It was Admiral Zhao. He set out to destroy a delicate balance, and he paid for it with his life."

"What did he do?"

"Zhao discovered that the ocean and moon spirit had physical forms at the Northern Water Tribe. My uncle tried to stop him, but the moon spirit was killed."

I remembered. The whole sky went black, the moon disappeared. Everything was cast the strangest light I'd ever seen. I didn't really know what was going on. Admiral Zhao only told a select few soldiers what he really planned. The platoon I was in had the general marching orders to take the Northern Water Tribe temple and occupy the city. It became insultingly easy when the Waterbenders couldn't bend anymore.

"It was more than enough to anger the ocean spirit, and with the Avatar it struck back against Zhao, you, and every other soldier invading the Northern Water Tribe. After the fleet was destroyed, it returned to the oasis when a new moon spirit appeared. It's at rest now."

"What happened to Admiral Zhao?" I asked.

He was silent for a long time.

"The ocean spirit took him. I was there when it happened. At the time, I tried to save him, but… he didn't want my help."

It was hard to take in. I knew it would be, but I expected some immediate change. The whole conversation, there was no overwhelming wave of relief. No sense that the way I felt had changed in the least bit. I balled my fists and tried to hide the frustration I began to feel. I didn't know what to expect… but it wasn't this.

"I hope I was able to give you the answers you needed," The Fire Lord said.

"Yes… thank you Fire Lord Zuko." I stood up and gave him a formal bow. "I can't explain how honored I am that you spent the time to talk to me… but I don't know what to say."

"Good. This isn't something you should rush. Even after traveling the world, it took me a long time to realize that there were some things larger than the interests of the Fire Nation. To put it one way, it was balance. The Fire Nation. The Water Tribes. The spirits. Everything. One day, you'll come to realize something too. But it will take time."

I listened to him carefully, and started to wonder about what was going on at the island.

"How do the faceless people fit in?" I asked.

The Fire Lord shook his head and stood up.

"I don't know. That's what the Avatar is trying to find out. From what I can tell it's nothing good."

Our conversation didn't get much further as the Avatar woke up. It started with a deep breath and then used his staff to stand up. He looked tired, or at least he looked like he had nothing good to say. Of course, before he could do anything I distracted him with my presence and got a confused look. The Fire Lord stepped in for an introduction.

"Oh, this is Uzin. He managed to avoid the faceless and find us here."

"I remember, you fainted when I walked in the room," The Avatar said.

"Yeah, that's me." I admitted.

"What have you found out?" The Fire Lord asked.

The Avatar shook his head. "Remember during the attack on the Northern Water Tribe when I was in the spirit world and you captured me?"

"I try not to."

I looked to the Fire Lord confused. It occurred to me that I never once asked him why he was at the North Pole. I was surprised, but it made sense. He had been banished during that time, with the hope that the only way he'd ever come back to the Fire Nation was with the Avatar. Admiral Zhao was caught in the same race for a time… only he was looking for another boost to his ego. The ship I served on never came close to running into the Avatar once before the North Pole but we heard plenty about his ambitions.

"Well… during that time I was trying to find the ocean and moon spirits. I went to talk to an old spirit… only he was dangerous. His name was Koh. My past lives also called him the Face Stealer. If you showed any emotion, he would take your face. Believe me; it's as bad as it sounds."

The Face Stealer Man came to mind. The way he rambled on about a spirit by that name when he had me tied to a bed. So, he wasn't totally crazy after all. Without thinking I interrupted.

"So… all those faceless people… they're… victims?" I asked.

The Avatar nodded. "I tried to find him in the spirit world, but he wasn't there. He's here Zuko. On the island."

"Are you sure?" The Fire Lord asked worriedly.

"I know he is. I can feel him."

"What's he doing here?"

"That… I don't know. Koh hasn't left the spirit world for a long time. There's no telling what he's up to, but it can't be good."

"I guess it's my turn for bad news." The Fire Lord sighed. "Doctor Jing hasn't returned from the secure wing with my sister. I don't know what happened to them."

Princess Azula… I had almost forgotten about her. Everything had been going so well until that moment. An awful feeling came over me. I knew what happened… and I was going to have to tell him. As much as I didn't want to, it felt worse to keep it a secret from the Fire Lord of all people.

"I know what happened," I said, getting their attention. "When I was looking for you, I went to the secure wing. The Royal Guard said you might be there… but I ran into Doctor Jing. She wanted me to help move Princess Azula."

I wasn't finished but he already knew. I could tell from his face.

"Tell me what happened." He demanded.

"We got to the courtyard, and then faceless showed up. They took Princess Azula and Doctor Jing. I tried to follow them… but they got away."

I didn't want to be there right then. I would have done anything to be anywhere else. The Boiling Rock, banished in some backwater Earth Kingdom colony. The Fire Lord looked terrible. Frustration, anger, shock, confusion, concern… all rolled up into one terrible expression. From what I heard about Azula, she might have deserved it… but she was still the Fire Lord's sister. And since she had been sent to Ash Springs, it at least meant he wasn't trying to make her disappear. When he finally turned away from me I felt a wave of relief and looked to the Avatar to say something. I had said enough, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

"Fire Lord… I'm sorry," I said pathetically.

"I don't know what's worse. That she's been taken… or that she might be out there on the loose."

"We'll find her Zuko," The Avatar assured him. "We'll find all of them. First I just need to deal with Koh."

"What can I do?" I asked.

"Go to the recreation room," The Avatar said quickly. "Trust me, it's safe. Everyone we managed to find is staying there. They could use another Firebender to help stand guard."

I tried to protest until I saw the Fire Lord nod at me. Maybe it was for the best for me to get out of the way. All the time I spent running all over the island had almost gotten me killed or caught by the faceless. A break didn't sound that bad the longer I thought about it. Besides, I wasn't going to disobey the Fire Lord. He clearly wanted me to follow what the Avatar said.

"Oh… okay."

"Are you going to be alright?" The Fire Lord asked.

"Yes… I'll be okay. I got this far. I know where it is."

I bowed to both of them one last time before leaving. I couldn't the shake the feeling of disappointment. I wanted to serve the Fire Lord somehow. But if it meant dealing with the spirits… that was far out of my control. I just had to hope that the Avatar was going to take care of it. Hopefully not in the same manner of what happened at the North Pole...

- Next Chapter: Courtyard Stockpile


	10. Chapter 10: Courtyard Stockpile

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 10: Courtyard Stockpile

I was on my way to the recreation room when I came across an unusual sight in the courtyard. I saw barrels. Some of them were sitting upright, and some of them were sitting on their sides but all of them were in a large stack. They were in all kinds of sizes. But the important thing was that there were a lot of them. I couldn't help myself but to look in. I imagined a lot of things could have been inside, but what I found wasn't one of them. It was blasting jelly. All of the barrels were filled with blasting jelly. I started to look around in horror. Two or three barrels of blasting jelly could blow a warship in two in the right spot. This looked like enough to blow the main wing in two, or at least vaporize the courtyard. Where did all of this come from? Why was it here? The whole thing was a little bit mesmerizing. I'd never seen so much, even at naval bases. But this was a mental health facility!

"What do you think Uzin?"

I heard his voice, and I knew who it was even before I saw him. Bowyer entered the courtyard, carrying another barrel. He dropped it in the pile and grinned.

"Bowyer… how did the Avatar and the Fire Lord miss you?"

"Lots of practice in staying out of sight, Uzin. One of the best ways to avoid getting a five ton boulder thrown at you is not to be seen in the first place. Now, I don't know why we keep running into each other, but it does make things interesting."

"Interesting?" I spat. "You almost got me killed at the secure wing!"

"Me? Princess Azula almost killed you at the secure wing. And I have to say; even though you don't even come close to her in a contest of Firebending… you do have some moves."

I tried to ignore his sarcasm. If there was any time I could keep him from getting under my skin, this was it.

"You know, I figured it would be a terrible waste if all this blasting jelly went off and no one was around to be caught in the explosion. So I guess you'll have to do." He grinned.

"Where did you even get all of this?"

"I made it, Uzin. That's what I do. In the Earth Kingdom, it's nice to have something with a lot of punch for those thick stone walls. It also helps that blasting jelly is fairly easy to make. You can do it with a lot of basic materials, even those found in a mental health facility. All it takes after that… is time. And I had plenty of that here."

"No… you are crazy…" I was amazed.

He laughed bitterly.

"You're calling me crazy for wanting to blow this place up? You mean to tell me you don't resent being forced to take part in circle time every other day of the week? Hearing the insane rattle on about the shape of clouds or their invisible friend? You don't despise all the time wasted making worthless junk in the arts room? Well I do. I hate this place!"

"You probably would have liked it better if you actually needed help. Not that it would matter. You would still blow it up. Because that's all you really care about. What you can destroy with your Firebending. That's why you were a disgrace during the war. That's why you're still a disgrace now."

"You keep acting like you know what you're saying. What about Admiral Zhao? And Princess Azula? Fire Lord Ozai? They were the masters! What we were all told to aspire to be! Everything I did in the Earth Kingdom… I should have been promoted! Instead, my superiors tried to send me to prison!"

I'd never seen Bowyer so angry before. It was kind of refreshing. Every other time at Ash Springs he had this untouchable nature about him. Nothing I said could ever make him mad, or change that smug look on his face. But now… he was feeling the full spectrum.

"If you don't remember, it ended badly for all of them. Zhao was killed. Azula went crazy. Ozai is in prison. Now it's your turn. You and me. Agni Kai!" I declared.

Bowyer scoffed.

"A Firebender duel in a courtyard full of blasting jelly? You go right ahead. Good luck with that."

I don't know why I challenged him; he'd never take it seriously. Bowyer had a sword handy, not that I was surprised. I always knew he'd cheat. The only problem was I had nothing but my fists with nothing to cheat back with. Maybe except a stone from the rock garden. Hesitantly I picked one up and held it at the ready.

"Ha ha. You know what the medical definition is for someone when they think they're an Earthbender? Hopeless!"

He lunged at me, swinging the sword horizontally slicing through the air. I dodged it and tossed my rock, hitting him square in the jaw. He stumbled backwards and I grabbed another rock. Unfortunately he rebounded faster than I thought and was on me before I was ready to do anything. I dodged the sword swing but not his entire body when he tackled me. The both of us grabbed onto each other with our free hands and started to roll across the yard into one of the barrels. It spilled. I got away while Bowyer was drenched in blasting jelly. Before he could get up, I dove over and smashed his hand holding the sword with the rock. He yelled angrily but didn't let go of it. Both of his feet kicked and landed on my stomach, knocking me away. We got up and started to circle each other. A part of me wanted to deflect the sword with a rock, and the other part of me knew that was just crazy. Bowyer had more than enough reach with the sword to keep me away.

"Come on Uzin. Firebend! Blow both of us back to the Earth Kingdom! Or maybe even the North Pole!"

I tossed my rock and missed. That was all the invitation Bowyer needed to run in swinging with abandon. I managed to grab the arm with the sword and threw him to the ground. Even after that he wouldn't let go. I kept trying to wrestle it out of his hand, even with the sharp blade just a few inches away from cutting me. But I had to get that sword away from him, it was his only advantage. I started working on prying his fingers when I noticed his other hand. He made a fist and flashed me a snarl. Against all logic and sanity he lashed out with a burst of fire and almost got me in the face. That made me let go of him, and I waited for an explosion and the end to come. But since it was straight up into the air, we were lucky enough that none of the barrels were set off.

"I can't believe you just-!" I stuttered.

"Shut up!"

Bowyer had the nerve to Firebend again, aiming for my head. He was threading a fine needle and for some reason we weren't blown sky high yet. The threat of it though pushed me closer than I cared to be, and he swung at me with the sword every chance. I had to stop him before he missed and hit one of the barrels. You could blow a warship in half with three barrels in the right places. I counted at least twelve out here in the courtyard. This was crazy, almost as bad as escorting Princess Azula. With the rush of it all I lunged for his legs and pulled him to the ground again. When he sat up to try and run me through I grabbed a clump of dirt and tossed it into his eyes. It wasn't sand, but it did the trick as he snapped back and reached for his face groaning in pain. I hit his arm hard, this time hard enough to wrench the sword from his grasp. As much as I wanted to grab it, Bowyer started to claw at the air blindly and I had an opening and punched him right in the nose. The impact was audible, it was so satisfying. I did it again and he rolled onto his side and tried to shield his face. More than enough time for me to jump off of him and go for the sword.

I almost had it in my hand when I turned to see him charging towards me. He was dead on and grabbed me around the waist. The both of us began to stumble out of control. We went right into the stack of barrels. One came down right on top of his head, knocking him dizzy. Another hit my leg, but I started to crawl towards the sword. Bowyer jumped on top of me and gave me a headlock while wrapping his legs around my waist. I somehow managed to stand up and started to struggle, but he was on tight. I couldn't wrestle him off so I formed a fire dagger and tried to burn his hand. It was either going to make him let go or torch my own neck. All the anticipation paid off when I heard him yell in pain and let go. I could finally breathe again! And with Bowyer behind me I had nothing keeping me from grabbing the sword. Before he could flip over and get on his feet I already had the sword pointed at his head.

"You fight dirtier than an Earthbender." Bowyer moaned.

"You should pick a better place to fight." I gasped, still trying to catch my breath.

We stared at each other for a long time. The unfriendly, wishing we could kill each other with thoughts alone kind of way.

"Well Uzin? What's wrong? This is the part where you finish it. Remember?"

"No… I'd rather see what the Fire Lord does to you when he finds out what you did to his sister."

"Oh? What did I do to her? I gave her a hairbrush. You're threatening me with that?"

"You drove her to a murderous rage. I think that counts for something. Maybe if you're lucky he'll just banish you forever."

It was the only time I saw Bowyer look scared. Even his mouth dropped open. The expression of terror lasted on his face for a short, but beautiful time. Then he started to smile and laugh in disbelief.

"Why did we never become friends? We have so much in common…" He smiled.

"I never fell in love with the way fire destroys things. That's why."

"What? Like this?"

Bowyer rolled to his side and shot a blast of fire into the pile of barrels. The one he hit had a shockwave enough to knock me to the ground and to start a chain reaction with the other barrels. The whole pile started to explode, but not in the way I expected. The blast seemed to be concentrated downward for some reason. Maybe Bowyer did something wrong with the formula. Both of us tried to run away while trying our hardest to keep each other from escaping the blast. The way we fought there was no way either of us could make it out of the courtyard when the entire pile of barrels finally exploded. The sound… it was like a loud roar only it suddenly turned to ringing and I could hardly hear anything. Then the ground collapsed underneath us. Both of us started to fall into a dark hole opened up by the blast. I could hardly tell what was happening but the rumbling of the massive explosion above was probably sending rubble to bury us both…

- Next Chapter: Koh the Face Stealer


	11. Chapter 11: Koh the Face Stealer

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 11: Koh the Face Stealer

The journey to the bottom of the hole could have gone better. My fall was broken by bouncing off of rocks on the way down. Somewhere after the tenth time I came to a stop, and expected to be buried at any moment… but it didn't happen. I had fallen into an underground tunnel. I lit a fire in my hand and looked around to see it stretch endlessly in both directions. I can't say I was surprised to learn Ash Springs had caves… but I felt relieved that it did. Bowyer's stack of blasting jelly could have made a mess out of us. Instead we fell to safety after some wear and tear… only I couldn't find him. I was the only one in the tunnel, so either Bowyer fell somewhere else or he had gotten up and ran away before I could spot him. No way to know, not that I cared. With any luck he had been buried alive or blown up by his own crazy blasting jelly concoction. Although I really did wish to be there to see what the Fire Lord would to do to Bowyer after what happened with Azula. My only regret was that I left that part out of my story.

I stumbled along until the tunnel opened up to a large cavern filled with all sorts of stalactites and stalagmites that any Earthbender would probably love to use as a spear. Getting out of this place was going to take awhile. I remembered the Face Stealer Man and the caverns he went on about. I never asked him where or how… but I think I found it on my own, no thanks to Bowyer. The cavern stretched in all directions, an echo would have lasted years down here. It's probably why I heard faint voices somewhere ahead. Carefully and quietly, I headed in the direction of the talking going on. I hoped I wasn't going to be sorry for this. Soon I was at a hole and looking down at the largest cave yet, filled with all sorts of natural light from crystals. I didn't have to spend a lot of time thinking about getting down, as I slipped and fell. Easy as that.

A crowd of faceless was waiting at the bottom. I jumped up ready to face them but they didn't rush me. All of the kept their distance, and none of them seemed eager to get anywhere close to me. They wondered around the cavern, bumping into each other and walking in circles. None of them seemed to realize I was even there. I carefully made my way around trying not to touch them. I saw what looked like a shrine in the middle of the cavern. Candles were lit around; most of them looked like they had been burning for awhile.

"Welcome to the shrine of the Face Stealer!" Someone called out.

I spun around. An old man stepped up to the shrine out of the darkness. It was Doctor Zhu. I had seen him once or twice since coming to Ash Springs but it was him. He was a mostly bald old man, with just enough white hair to make a good top knot out of it. And he had a beard… a long beard. Everything that Liu said in the records room was starting to come back to me. With all the faceless around, Doctor Zhu had an unnerving calm about him. I skipped asking him why he was down here. He knew what was going on.

"Someone told me I should stay away from you," I said. "I'm starting to see why."

"Tell me," he started. "Do you know anything about the spirit world?"

"Only through limited experience..."

"I've tried to learn as much as I could between attending to my patients. I managed to acquire an old scroll that talked about how… we could contact the spirit world without the help of the Avatar. The man I bought it from said he recovered it from a giant library in the desert years and years ago."

Liu was right.

"So… all the faceless? This is your fault?"

"The faceless are an accident. I meant to call the Face Stealer… instead… I managed to bring his victims. The scroll is partially damaged. From what I understand, they existed somewhere in the spirit world. I don't believe they were ever supposed to leave that place. Now… they wonder Ash Springs…. It might explain their tendencies to kidnap people and bring them down here. Maybe they think they can trade… a face for their own face. Not that it works that way."

I looked to the faceless stumbling around us. They were a mistake? All these… people had nearly torn the island apart. That was a mistake? And even if Doctor Zhu got it right in the first place… he was calling the Face Stealer. Even the Avatar admitted he was dangerous… and he was the Avatar! With all my confusion, Doctor Zhu sighed. He started to pace around the shrine.

"Why did you do it? The Fire Lord is here... and the Avatar... Why?" I said.

"The Fire Lord... is another unfortunate mistake. I never dreamed he would ever come to Ash Springs. But I could not turn back, even with his arrival. Because I am an old man… I became the administrator of the secure wing during Fire Lord Azulon's reign. I'm not sure what the Fire Nation has become can survive this new age of… peace. I know I cannot. With the help of the Face Stealer, I can become a part of the spirit world! In some small way, I can live forever."

"You want to become one of them… to beat death? Look at them! They're practically ghosts!"

There's no way Doctor Zhu saw what I saw when he looked at the faceless. Some of them wore clothes from an era I never knew existed. Who knew what was left in those stumbling bodies? Were they alive? Did they know what was even going on around them? What was it like to live without a face where time no longer seemed to apply? I still couldn't believe that Doctor Zhu really wanted to become one of them.

"I'd rather be a ghost than to die without honor! I've diagnosed many patients over the years; I know what it's like when someone's mind begins to leave them! And Princess Azula... Probably the most horrible example of all. To think... someone with so much promise... could break so completely... What is left of her now? What hope do I have?"

"If you want to see him so bad, then why do you still have your face!?" I shouted.

Doctor Zhu recoiled. He was about to cry.

"The Face Stealer refused to take my face! He said I couldn't possibly imagine the will of the spirits! I had to make a deal with him." Doctor Zhu gasped.

"Deal?" I repeated. "What deal?"

"An offering. The faceless bring people down here... and I find them. Most think I come to their rescue... but I help make introductions to the Face Stealer."

Everything the Face Stealer Man raved about in the second floor infirmary suddenly made sense. He must have dropped in on Doctor Zhu bargaining with the real Face Stealer and got the crazy idea that he could get in on the doctor's plan in all the wrong ways.

"You give him faces and he takes yours? What kind of deal is that?" I exclaimed.

"One I'm going to fulfill… here he comes now…"

The faceless started to run away. It was like someone screamed about a flood, or an invasion. They all scattered until it was only Doctor Zhu and I standing in the cavern. An awful silence swept over the area, it was a strange feeling. It reminded me a lot of the North Pole just before the ocean spirit started to attack. Only I knew what was coming, and so did the doctor. I couldn't find it in me to run, only look around just asking for horrible things to happen. Something huge moved in the shadows. It started to take shape, a long snaking form with long legs clicking along the surface of the cave. It could have been a centispider only… gigantic... and bizarre.

"Great spirit Koh..." Doctor Zhu bowed.

The Face Stealer started to circle the cave moving his legs and swaying his body back and forth. I could only describe his head as an eyelid, which wasn't that great of a description. The first face I saw on him looked like a monkey, then he blinked… and the face changed to a man wearing theater makeup. My natural reaction was to scream or stare in horror, but I remembered what the Avatar said. If you showed emotion… Koh would steal your face. It took everything I had to hold a straight expression.

"Welcome!" Koh said to me.

His voice on that face… it wasn't right at all. He talked slowly with a deep voice, clearly in no rush. Considering he was a spirit he probably had all the time in the world.

"I have… nothing to say to you." I tried to keep my voice flat but I was afraid I couldn't do it.

"Nothing? Ah… but we have so much to talk about you and I. It's not often I meet someone with such… a familiar face."

"Are you trying to say… you know me?"

"Not you… but your father. The resemblance is… unmistakable."

The Face Stealer changed his face to a man who looked like he could be from the Fire Nation. It wasn't anyone I recognized, I wanted to sigh in relief… but I held it in. For a second, I really thought the Face Stealer was going to turn around with my father's face… even though it didn't make any sense. He couldn't possibly know him. I think I would notice if someone in my family suddenly went missing or woke up without their face one morning. All of them were healthy!

"I don't understand." It was all I could think to say.

Koh snapped around, hovering inches away from my face. I didn't want to move, but I found myself taking a step backwards which he was happy to close the distance again. He wouldn't look away and I wouldn't either. His face changed to an ancient woman shriveled like a prune. She looked naturally sad.

"Your father's name is Uzin. Your grandfather's name is Uzin." Koh listed calmly. "I know them well."

How did he know? Granted my family shared our name for a long time, but it was an impressive first guess. He just wanted my face… he wanted me to lose it. I managed to hold it together until he started to crawl around the room again. Every time Koh wasn't looking at me I vented all the emotion I was trying to hold back. It became a strange game. I couldn't tell if he was playing with me or trying to hold a conversation.

"Your family and I have had a long interesting relationship, more recently your father. He would pray to me every night to punish his enemies. To steal their faces in the night so they would leave him alone. At the time, I don't think he really believed that I would hear him… or that I would fulfill his wishes."

"Why would you do that for him... and my family?" I asked.

"People recall so very little about spirits. I feel somewhat honored when they bother to remember my name. Even if they don't remember who I am."

"My father never told me he knew about you."

"Of course not. I normally don't bend to the demands of others… but when I do, I expect something in return. Your father probably realized what an awful debt he created with me. If only he knew… it's a debt that's been going for generations. Your family is a vengeful family who has called on me countless times."

"So… this isn't about Doctor Zhu… this is about me?"

"It is now." Koh smiled.

Doctor Zhu finally got his wish. He was looking on with his mouth hanging open, probably in shock when the Face Stealer rushed over and wound around his body. I'm not sure if it was the light in the cavern… or… I'm not sure what happened. I wanted to say that Koh's eyelid overtook Doctor Zhu's head... but that might just be my imagination. Suddenly Doctor Zhu was standing there with no face… and his face was now Koh's face. It was blindingly fast. That's all I can be sure of. Doctor Zhu's faceless body reached up to feel his now featureless head, then quickly ran off with his arms flailing about like he realized he had made a horrible, horrible mistake. I almost lost it.

"How does it look?" Koh asked with Doctor Zhu's face.

"You were just using him." I realized.

"People of the world and the Avatar use spirits for their own ends all the time. It's only fair that it works the other way around. Now, where were we?"

No way I was next! I heard what the Avatar said. He couldn't get me. He couldn't!

"I know your rules. All I have to do is keep from cracking a smile or frowning… and I'm safe."

"Oh, but there are so many more emotions than you realize. When you're in pain, when you feel relieved, when you come across something terrible," He started to close in around me, changing his face to a blue faced creature I couldn't begin to describe. "Or when you see something you'll never forget."

"That sounds like cheating," I said trying to look away.

Koh had a good laugh. I hated that laugh so much. I was losing it.

"Sometimes all it takes is the right face. I have many new ones. Let me know if it's anyone you recognize."

I tried to look elsewhere, but every time Koh stretched his body and wound around so that I was eye to eye. He started to go through different faces. The first was Doctor Hwang. I tried to look away. The next face was the man who thought he was a solider. I looked away. Koh shifted his face to Doctor Jing. Every time he shifted faces it was someone else from Ash Springs. Even Bowyer! But he was about to show me the worst one by far.

"How about this one?"

The next face was Azula. The Face Stealer had taken Azula's face! She was scary enough all by herself, to see her face on Koh… I was screaming inside. I wanted to explode.

"I rather like it. It feels natural to smile. Ha ha."

I couldn't hold it anymore. I shielded my face and started to run for it. I didn't even want to think about climbing over Koh's body and hitting the floor of the cave. His body felt more like a shell… it was slick and terrifying. And the Face Stealer wanted me! I could hear him laughing as I ran away. But if I learned anything from the ocean spirit at the North Pole… there was no escaping the spirits!

- Next Chapter: Façade


	12. Chapter 12: Facade

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 12: Façade

I lit my escape route with blasts of fire. I was running too fast to hold a flame for any length of time. For a second, I thought maybe I could get away, but Koh was fast- ridiculously fast. Maybe it was all those legs. I felt like it was only the sprawling cavern that gave me any chance at all. Koh had to maneuver around a lot of stalactites and stalagmites while I could fit through just about anything. Either that or he was just playing with me, it certainly fit with our short but terrifying conversation. I could lose him to the point where I couldn't see him, but his voice and the clicking of his legs were always perfectly loud and clear.

"Why do you want me? Why not someone more important… like a Fire Lord!?" I yelled, thinking of something, anything that would get him away from me.

"The last time I took the face of a king, the Avatar chased me for four hundred years, over the course of three incarnations before more… important matters came up. I've learned to be careful about adding to my collection."

Koh crawled out from around a column of rock and spotted me trying to hide in a small hole. His owl face grinned.

"Not to forget, this is about what you owe me! No one else!"

I scrambled for a better hiding space, punching fire into the air as Koh crawled along the walls. He dodged it easily and kept after me. Even as I squeezed through a hole I barely fit through, he found a larger one and kept the chase going. I was never going to find my way out of here… and he was so fast. I turned a corner in the cave and tripped over the uneven ground. I started to slide down a steep slope. I used what Firebending I could to keep myself steady instead of tumbling over and over again in a roll. Now I was sliding fast through a cluster of rocks and edges in the cave. Somehow I avoided the obstacles instead of smashing right into them, still sliding. I looked over to see Koh scrambling across from me, going even faster. He was going to beat me to the bottom! When the slope ended I flew right over a gap and landed on solid ground. I managed to stumble into a roll and get back on my feet without losing much momentum. But Koh had already passed me and blocked the tunnel.

It forced me to scramble through another small hole I wasn't even sure went anywhere. To my horror, it led to water, deep, deep water. With a fire blast I saw that the tunnel was just partially flooded, it actually went somewhere… but it was water… so much water. The alternative was to turn back and take my chances with Koh, who was still crawling outside the hole. I held my breath, and started a slow trudge. The water was up to my chest… the most uncomfortable feeling in the world at that moment. But I wasn't blacking out… and I wasn't having flashbacks to the North Pole. Maybe with the Face Stealer… I had learned a real definition of nightmares. At the North Pole the ocean spirit had a reason. It was retaliation after something it cared about was murdered. With Koh... he didn't need a reason.

I crawled out of the water and squeezed through another hole into a cavern the size of ship's hold. It was wide and open. An Earthbender would have been proud if they'd made it. I ran across looking for some way to go upwards. But it was looking more and more like the only way I could go was to climb. I don't climb, but I had no other choice. I picked a wall that looked like it had the most footholds and started up. The only exit it looked like I could reach was practically at the top of the cavern. I slipped twice, and didn't even get halfway up the wall when I heard him. He found me. I looked over my shoulder to see him scaling the wall. It was such a natural motion, I had no chance. Before he got to me I let go and hit the ground hard. I swallowed all kinds of noises I would have made after landing on my side that hard and stood up just in time to face down the Face Stealer again.

"Do you know how many people your father wanted me to visit?"

Koh's face changed to a man with a less than perfect face. A large bruise was around his eye and a cut across his mouth. It was a standout compared to Koh's other faces since the other ones looked normal if they weren't attached to his body.

"This man was an Earthbender and very hard to find alone. His face wasn't even in good health."

I kept trying to find another way out while he talked. It was impossible to concentrate on that with all the feelers moving around his face changing eyelid.

"This woman saw him Firebending and threatened to expose him to an Earth Kingdom village during his travels."

He kept going on and on, showing me more faces of people my father thought threatened him. Some of them went back as far as his time in the army, fellow officers… or so Koh told me. It was sometime then I figured out what he realized long before. I couldn't escape. Maybe if I was an Earthbender… but he had me. I tripped over one of his legs I didn't even see. My face must have run through all the emotions Koh needed to steal it. Surprise, despair, and finally pain as I felt his entire body land on me. He rolled me over and pressed down on my chest. I tried so hard to hold it all in... But he was using Azula's face again.

"What is it about this face that bothers you so much?" Koh asked.

"Why are you asking me? Shouldn't a spirit like you know? She almost killed the Avatar."

"Oh, but I asked you."

Because she's Azula. That's all I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't get it out. I kept waiting for my face to disappear.

"Let him go, Koh."

The Face Stealer snapped up, and slowly pulled his body off of me. It was the Avatar, and I was actually relieved to see him!

"The Avatar… it's always a pleasure. I said we'd meet again… never did I suspect it would be so soon."

"Why are you here?"

The Avatar showed calm I wasn't capable of. I mean, he was the Avatar... but this was the Face Stealer he was dealing with. Koh changed his face back to the man wearing the theater makeup. The Avatar didn't so much as flinch.

"I'm only settling a matter that has nothing to do with you. This man owes me a great debt for all the good fortune I've brought his family over the past hundred or so years."

Koh crawled around me, but he didn't go far. The Avatar came closer, keeping a cautious eye out for both of us.

"May I see the last face you used?"

"You mean," Koh said as he changed his face back to Azula. "The face that belonged to the one who killed you? The spirit world felt different that day."

"The face belongs to my friend's sister. You must return it."

"How very odd, that you would care so much for someone who did so much to you. The Avatar is usually so good at holding grudges."

"I am serious, Koh."

The Avatar making demands on a spirit by the name of the Face Stealer went over just about as well as it sounded. Koh wasn't amused, even though he laughed and grabbed a part of the cavern's ceiling so he could hang down from it. They were practically eye to eye.

"If I had a face for every time your incarnations told me to give one back… I'd need thousands more."

"So you refuse?"

"My answer remains the same since the first Avatar asked me so very long ago. Never."

I thought I'd never see such a flat refusal to the Avatar… but Ash Springs had been nothing but a place of precedents. Spirits, faceless people, now an argument between the spirit world. I picked a corner and tried to stay as far out of the way as I could so they could forget about me. Unfortunately Koh didn't forget, and kept glancing over to remind me that our business wasn't over yet.

"Please, Koh. I do not want to fight. I am asking you." The Avatar pleaded.

"But you will, you always do."

Koh changed his face to a Water Tribe woman with long flowing hair. He laughed, and that was all it took for things to escalate. The Avatar swung his staff and a gust of wind knocked Koh into the cavern wall, causing some of it to collapse. All of this without raising an eyebrow or so much as letting his lip tremble. Then he turned in my direction and used Earthbending to carve a perfect round little tunnel where solid rock used to be. He pointed at me.

"Go!"

I made a mad dash to the tunnel and the Avatar was right behind me to seal it up again. We didn't wait around and kept running until the tunnel emptied out into another cavern. The Avatar sealed that end too and started to make a way to the surface. A staircase of stone erupted from the ground, going straight up.

"Keep going to the surface. I'll deal with Koh." The Avatar told me.

"Can you really stop him?"

"I have to. He's gone too far this time."

The way Koh talked, I started to wonder. How many times had the Avatar vowed to stop the Face Stealer in the past? And yet he was still crawling around taking people's faces. It wasn't very comforting. I know I shouldn't doubt the only person who could save me but the fear was too much to handle.

"You can't leave me!" I yelled. "He wants my face!"

I was clutching his robes, pleading the best I could when Koh showed up again crashing through the staircase of rock and heading right for us. The Avatar had to push me away so he could launch the floor of the cave to smash into the roof through Earthbending. But Koh was quick to avoid, pulling back and darting forward when it was clear. He also somehow wormed his way through a double fisted fire blast without so much as getting singed. The Avatar avoided him with his light footwork… but Koh was after me. I could barely start to move when a giant blast of wind sent him rolling through stalagmites to the other side of the cave. The Avatar went after him, and I ran to find somewhere to get out of the way. I had to be holding the Avatar back, he didn't seem to be bending like I imagined. Maybe he was afraid he was going to hurt me in the process. Maybe it was just hard to fight without expression. My Firebending teachers liked to call it discipline in the academy… but to fight the spirits like that would take an amazing effort. Effort I didn't have.

I was heading towards a depression in the wall when I noticed barrels. They looked like Bowyer's blasting jelly barrels… only unexploded. I counted three. Maybe… with the Face Stealer occupied fighting the Avatar… I could make this work. Behind me the whole cave lit up from four elements of bending and the Face Stealer thrashing about, trying to find a vulnerable moment when he could take the Avatar's face. I grabbed the biggest barrel and started to roll it out to a place where it would blend in. When I put it down I stacked some rocks on it and ran back to my hiding place lying in wait. The blasting jelly didn't seem to have the same kick as it was supposed to be… but it would still hurt. I started to watch them fight. Koh kept trying to wrap around the Avatar, but he would get loose and retaliate. Slowly they were working their way towards my barrel of carefully placed blasting jelly.

"Come on. Come on." I muttered.

Finally they were in position. I was just about to jump out and strike the barrel when Koh finally managed to catch his enemy. The Avatar was caught in constriction, trying his hardest not to show any pain. I hesitated. I couldn't blow it up with both of them in the way. What if it killed both of them? I couldn't deal with that. I had a hard enough time getting over what happened at the North Pole. That took me several years and a conversation with the Fire Lord to even begin to recover from. Water still scared me. But if Koh took the Avatar's face… I'd be next. The whole thing… I just stood there watching Koh apply more and more pressure, trying to get the Avatar to crack. I had to do something. I ran out of my hiding spot and shot a blast of fire at Koh's head, enough to get him to loosen up when he twitched to avoid it. The Avatar managed to escape, and without a second thought I fired at the barrel of blasting jelly. Bowyer apparently got his formula right on this one, because the explosion was more than I could have anticipated. I was thrown back, the Avatar was thrown back, and Koh almost disappeared in geyser of smoke and fire… but somehow made it out in one piece. He seemed dazed.

The strangest thing happened next. The Avatar jumped to Koh and put his hand on the Face Stealer's forehead. His other hand touched the… eyelid thing that Koh used to change faces all the time. From both of them erupted this light… light bright enough to nearly blind me. I kept trying to look at them to figure out what was going on. The white light kept pushing on the light coming from Koh and I saw… something leaving Koh. He was losing something from what the Avatar was doing. I squinted, and even though it hurt I saw it. Koh was losing faces. He would change to one and it would slowly fade away until he was forced to change to another. Then it stopped, the light faded from both of them and they collapsed to the ground. I saw the Avatar get up and try to walk before falling over again. Koh couldn't even move. I ran over to see if the Avatar was alright and helped him sit up.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I tried to take away the faces he stole… but there are so many. Millions. Too many faces… I don't have the strength..."

The Avatar looked completely drained, but he was okay. I went to check Koh next… as cautiously as I could. His face was an angry Fire Nation woman, but when I reached him he had changed back to the man with the theater makeup. He was also completely drained of any strength and could only squirm around on the ground. Not that the whole experience had changed his mood at all. He tried to shrug it off.

"You seem surprised," I said.

"You may be… but I am not. The Avatar never fails to come up with new tricks..." Koh groaned.

He was helpless. So was the Avatar. I don't know what happened between them right then, but I wasn't going to let it go to waste. I was the only one who could actually do anything at that moment. I went back to the barrels of blasting jelly and picked one up. Carefully, I rolled it over to Koh and set it up next to him. The two of us traded a long unpleasant stare.

"Should I feel threatened?" Koh coughed.

"You tried to steal my face. And you should know that Firebenders have a history of killing spirits. My commander was Admiral Zhao; you could say I learned from the best."

Koh desperately tried to move, probably because I wasn't hiding my emotions anymore. My anger was in full display. But he was in no condition to steal faces after what the Avatar did to him. He had no choice but to listen.

"But I'm not going to kill you. If my family owes you a debt, I'm going to repay it by sparing your life. Whatever my father… or my entire family ever asked you to do… it's finished."

I didn't get any reaction out of him. He didn't even change his face. He just kept looking at me in that… creepy Face Stealer spirit way.

"We no longer owe the Face Stealer anything," I said again.

This time Koh smiled, and managed to lift his body slightly, enough so that we were face to face.

"Very well… until you call on me again," Koh said.

I didn't know how good a spirit's word was. I certainly didn't earn the courtesy after practically taking part in killing the moon spirit. But Koh silently retreated into the darkness. The last thing I saw was one of many faces he stole, smiling at me before disappearing. I waited for a long time with the fear he would jump back out . But… it was really over. The Face Stealer was gone. The overwhelming sense of dread faded away. When I turned around, the Avatar was back on his feet waiting for me, leaning on his staff.

"Were you really going to do it?" The Avatar asked.

I released a nervous gasp and felt a kind of relief I've never experinced before. My whole body felt tingly.

"No. No way. Not even close. I learned a long time ago that I don't have any business messing with the spirits. That's your job."

I managed to get a nervous laugh out of the Avatar, but it was better than nothing.

- Next Chapter: Recovery


	13. Chapter 13: Recovery

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

--The Faceless

---Chapter 13: Recovery

The Avatar managed to save everyone on the island who had their face stolen. They turned up wandering underground in the caverns, completely dazed from the whole experience. Anyone who wasn't completely crazy remembered a little bit what happened, and it wasn't anything they wanted to repeat. Doctor Hwang, Doctor Jing, Princess Azula, Bowyer… even Doctor Zhu. They all came out of it with their faces intact, for better or worse. It was because of Energybending, the crazy trick with the opposing light when the Avatar touched the Face Stealer's head. It was the same technique that made Ozai powerless. But the way he described it… it seemed that Energybending didn't work the same way when it was used on a spirit. The Avatar wasn't sure how many faces he'd actually taken away from Koh, only that he wasn't looking forward to doing it again anytime soon. And when the Face Stealer left, so did the faceless. All of them had returned to the spirit world, so any damage Doctor Zhu did with his underground ceremony was undone.

A massive coordination effort was underway at the docks to get residents on boats that would take them to the places where they needed to be. Joo Dee was there waving to everyone and wishing them a safe trip. I counted four ships, five if you wanted to include the Fire Lord's airship- not that it was taking passengers. Ash Springs was destroyed, and wasn't fit to house any patients. It was time to clear out. Doctor Hwang, Doctor Jing, and the rest of the staff helped the guards sort everyone. Doctor Zhu was apparently too far gone to be any help, something to do with the whole Face Stealer episode not living up to his expectations. The whole time I tried to imagine what must have drove him to do something so awful. It must have been the all the change. The war we had fought for so long was suddenly wrong. A new Fire Lord was crowned. Ozai had been sent to prison. Princess Azula went crazy. And the Fire Nation was now dedicated to putting everything back together. To Doctor Zhu, it must have felt like the world had ended.

I sat on a crate nearby with the Avatar watching them all go by. The Fire Lord was also there, but he was talking with Doctor Jing. I had one guess what their conversation was about. And there was the ocean... but even with all the water, I was too tired to care. I had so much to think about, with everything that happened. Especially the relationship between the Face Stealer and my family. After the whole thing… I never thought I'd be sitting next to the Avatar so close to the ocean without having a panic attack or losing my mind. It still made me uneasy, okay... so it still scared me a little. But it was no longer the formless rage I thought would jump out and kill me.

"Forgive me… but I have to know. Why did you come to Ash Springs in the first place? I keep thinking what would have happened if you weren't here," I said to the Avatar.

"Zuko asked me to come. It was about Azula."

"Were you going to… do to her what you did to Ozai?" I asked slowly.

"No, he wanted me to see her... and if there was anything else he could do to help her get better."

"Seems to care for her... more than I expected. I mean, from what I heard about her. I know most of them are probably just stories... but they aren't exactly happy stories."

The Avatar paused. He turned away and smiled.

"I like to think it's something he got from his uncle," he said.

I was already sorry I asked, so I didn't try to push it anymore. I tried to imagine how that conversation would have gone between the Avatar and Azula in her state of mind. It must have been hard. Maybe they didn't even get around to it before the faceless started rampaging around the island. I didn't have the courage to ask something like that and waited until the Fire Lord and Doctor Jing walked over to us.

"Everyone has been accounted for. Even Azula. But getting them all off the island is going to take some time," The Fire Lord said.

"It won't be a problem," Doctor Jing assured everyone. "Now that things are back to normal… so to speak… finding other places for our patients is only a matter of time. However… I must apologize Fire Lord Zuko. Everything that happened… Ash Springs has never dealt with anything like this… we could not begin to-"

"Please doctor, this wasn't a test. There was nothing you could do. Besides, everything went fine… until the faceless showed up."

Doctor Jing looked like the Fire Lord had just spared her from an execution. She let out the deepest sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Fire Lord. Thank you."

She went on, bowing and thanking the Fire Lord when I noticed Bowyer in the line heading towards one of the ships. I stood up and got his attention.

"Hey Bowyer! He knows!" I yelled.

Bowyer didn't care. He shrugged it off and shot me a sarcastic grin… until he saw the Fire Lord point at him. Before he knew it, two Royal Guards plucked him out of the line and put on restraints. He tried to fight back but wasn't much of a threat. First he looked scared, and then a frustrated smile spread across his face as he kicked his legs and tried to wrench himself free.

"It was worth it! Blue fire! And lightning!" Bowyer yelled as he was dragged away.

It was everything I could have hoped for. It was nice that others could see Bowyer for what he really was. Hopefully he went straight to the Boiling Rock where he belonged. They don't have Pai Sho and arts and crafts there. I doubt they had enough materials for a bed much less blasting jelly. No more circle time, and no more beaches. His vacation was over.

"So, Uzin… I heard what Doctor Hwang said. You're being released. What will you do now?" Doctor Jing asked me.

"Go home; I have a lot to talk about with my father. He probably has a lot to talk about as well. I appreciate everything you and the other doctors have done for me, even though I probably made your jobs hard."

"Have you really gotten over your fears of water?"

"I'm... working on it. The important thing is... I understand the spirits better. What happened at the North Pole is much clearer to me now. There was so much I didn't know before."

Doctor Jing nodded. Just then Azula came out onto the docks. She was accompanied by two Royal Guards, one was pushing her in a wooden wheelchair while the other carried a trunk that probably had some of her belongings. She seemed calm, but kept muttering to herself and hunched over staring directly ahead without moving her eyes. I couldn't tell how much damage Bowyer did when he forced her into a relapse. It was obvious to me though, that she looked worse than when I saw her in the secure wing. I mean, before she tried to kill me. She still looked terrifying.

"Doctor Jing, I'm taking my sister with me. She'll be in my care. We have a long journey to make," The Fire Lord said when he noticed her.

"Yes… I understand."

As Azula passed by us, she didn't seem to recognize Fire Lord Zuko, or the Avatar… or anyone. She calmly rolled up the boarding ramp and entered the Fire Lord's airship. We were quiet for a long time.

"Do you really think the dragons can help her, Aang?" The Fire Lord asked without turning around.

"Yes, I do. If she can see the true nature of Firebending... it would go a long way." The Avatar responded while putting his hand on the Fire Lord's shoulder.

I don't know what that meant but that was their business now. They had their problems, and I had mine. My ship was ready to leave. However I had one more thing to say. It was more of a request, really.

"Avatar Aang, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?" He said.

"If you ever somehow meet with the moon and ocean spirit… could you tell them how sorry I am… I understand now. And… I'm so sorry."

The Avatar nodded. I bowed one last time for everything they've done for me. With the Fire Lord, he helped me understand what happened at the North Pole. With the Avatar… well… I got to keep my face. The only thing left to do was go home… and talk with my father. That was probably going to be one long, strange conversation to say the least. I can see why he never brought it up to me before. Where do you even start?

-The End

-- Thanks for Reading!


End file.
